The Spanish Hub of the RRI Tools European project, led by Obra Social "la Caixa" and IrsiCaixa, organized three training seminars on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in May 2016, in which more than 100 people from all over the country participated. These meetings are part of the training programme that the consortium organizes throughout Europe with the aim of promoting RRI between the research community, business and industry, policy makers, civil society organizations and the educational community. The events took place at the CosmoCaixa Barcelona on the 4th, the CaixaForum in Madrid on the 24th and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid on the 30th of May.

The courses allowed different stakeholders to reflect on the concept of RRI and identify useful tools and methodologies for their projects, while establishing new synergies between them. During the training sessions, attendees had the opportunity to reflect on the opportunities of this new paradigm and obstacles to implement it. At the same time, they could deepen in the policy agendas of RRI – open access, gender equality, ethics, public engagement, science education and science and governance. These events also served as a framework to present the beta version of the RRI Tools’ Toolkit, which has over 350 multimedia resources to implement the RRI. Among these resources, users can find inspiring practices at national and international level; manuals and guidelines to implement it, tailored information addressed to different stakeholders, a self-reflection tool and the possibility of being part of a community of practice at a European level.

The national Hub has collaborated with Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR), the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP), Agency for the Research Centres of Catalonia (CERCA) and the Catalan Association of Scientific Communication (ACCC) to organize the events in Catalonia. Additionally, the events held in Madrid, have been organized in collaboration with the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM).

These workshops trigger a series of training activities that the national Hub is going to organize in Spain with the aim of establishing a community of practice of institutions and people working on RRI. During the autumn, they are going to be repeated in other parts of Spain such as Valencia, Andalusia and the Basque Country, training more actors on RRI at national level.

What is RRI?

The RRI is an iterative and transparent process of opening the research and innovation system to improve the current relationship between science and society. It is proposed to invite different stakeholders to collaborate during the different stages of the process. The aim is to move towards a more participatory governance of R&I, allowing a better alignment of the interests and expectations of society to find sustainable solutions to the social challenges of the XXI century.

The European Commission promotes RRI and incorporates it transversely in the framework program Horizon 2020. Increasingly funding agencies, government agencies, research centers and universities in different continents are incorporating the RRI.

The presentations of the sessions are available on IrsiCaixa website.

Josep Carreras and Rosina Malagrida

Josep Carreras and Rosina Malagrida work on RRI Tools at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute in Barcelona, the RRI Tools Hub coordinator for Spain.