ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the possibilities for the European Commission to encourage European member states to implement Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in their own research and innovation governance structures. It provides an initial overview and survey of the situation regarding RRI in several of the EU's member states. The chapter focuses on the ResAGorA project's RRI Trends Report, which is at present the only attempt to provide a systematic overview of the adoption and implementation of RRI by EU member states. The reports submitted for ResAGorA's RRI Trends survey are rather varied in terms of detail, content and quality. The reports were examined to establish whether they addressed the following elements: general research and innovation cultures, response to and uptake of RRI key issues and RRI norms and Institutional structures and RRI. In terms of objectives, the Commission's RRI programme defines a series of key action points: public engagement, gender equality, science education, open access, ethics and governance.