GROUNDING RRI PRACTICES
IN RESEARCH PERFORMING ORGANISATIONS

We have worked on creating a sustainable, growing and proactive marine and maritime RRI community. The purpose of the GRRIP project was to deliver a practical RRI framework for implementing institutional and cultural change in marine and maritime research organisations.

Why GRRIP?

The marine and maritime (M&M) sector has a high priority for the EU. However, this research sector is one of the most exposed to a risk of the loose connection between scientific research, societal actors and the environment, affecting its performance and competitiveness. Growth in Europe’s maritime economy (often referred to as the Blue Economy), has the potential to meet pressing needs for energy, food and economic growth.

Much work has been done on the concept RRI by EU projects in the 2000’s. However, the bulk of the projects relating to institutional change for RPO&RFOs have focused on one of the five keys individually. Relatively few have focused on the current Topic’s aim of Grounding RRI practices in the RPO&RFOs themselves as part of an integrated approach.

Five Research Organisations:

Achieving institutional and cultural change

GRRIP will embed sustainable RRI practices in 4 research performing organisations (RPO) and 1 dual-function RPO and research funding organisation (RPO/RFO) (total 5 RPO&RFO) in the marine and maritime sectors to achieve institutional and cultural change.

OUR OBJECTIVES

Co-develop, implement and evaluate self-tailored RRI Action Plans (AP) to enable institutional and cultural change processes for the 5 Marine and Maritime (M&M) research performing organisations and research funding organisations (RPO&RFO) to embed RRI in their governance frameworks, structures and cultures.

Establish structures to facilitate, promote and maximise real sustainable engagement with, and input from, the Quadruple Helix (QH) (industry, societal actors, policy and other RPO&RFOs)GRRIP will pay particular attention to societal actors (often referred to as citizens, public, society, civil society organisations).

Establish indicators and methodology for impartial Monitoring, Reflection and Evaluation cycles. Objective 3 will provide formative and summative Evaluation producing Cross-Fertilisation and Trans-disciplinary foresight. Objective 3 will ensure provision of evidence of societal, democratic, economic and scientific impacts of institutional changes.

Develop a Mutual Learning process across the M&M RPO&RFOs both during the institutional and cultural change project and the ongoing evaluation feedback loop cycles, using participatory methods.

Legacy: To enable more M&M RPO&RFOs to ground RRI practices through institutional and cultural changes by a) creating a practical user-friendly RRI AP framework template and guidelines, and b) launching an M&M RRI community.

Examine how an RFO can positively influence and encourage an RPO towards RRI via its funding policy and interaction. This will be explored via a case study.

Work Packages

WP1

Project Coordination, Standardisation and Methodology

Our organisational structure and decision-making, financial administration, risk management and communication efforts are managed in this work package. We are also taking care that RRI principles are followed throughout the project both in our research and within the project.

WP2

Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication

We will effectively disseminate and transfer the outputs and results of GRRIP to our key project stakeholders, wider public entities, and business and investment communities. We will also inclusively engage with the civil society on all aspects of the project.

WP3

Statement of the Art on RRI Action Plans and QH dialogue platforms

We review the State of the Art on Responsible Research and Innovation in research organizations to identify the most successful initiatives, projects and methods that have generated institutional change.

WP4

Quadruple Helix engagement

Participatory engagement including representatives from each sector of the research and innovation process in each phase of the project is essential for creating results from which all involved stakeholders can benefit. We establish a related engagement platform and appropriate guidelines to ensure effective participation.

WP5

RPO & RFO Working Groups setup, and audit and impact assessment of RRI maturity

For the effective implementation of RRI practices we need to establish the current RRI maturity level of each research organisation and the barriers and challenges that may hinder institutional change in terms of RRI.

WP6

Responsible Research and Innovation Action Plan

We design and deliver a self-tailored, individual action plan for each research organisation including institutional and cultural interventions, methods to overcome identified barriers and challenges, and appropriate communication strategies.

WP7

RRI AP Implementation & RFO/RPO case study

We continue our on-going campaigns of communication, education and training to successfully implement the RRI action plans across the organisations.

WP8

RRI Mutual Learning – Monitoring, Reflection and Evaluation

We will establish a mutual learning platform for marine and maritime research organisations.

WP9

Marine and Maritime Legacy outputs

We will create a sustainable, growing and proactive maritime and maritime RRI community based on what we learn throughout the GRRIP project and provide a practical RRI framework for implementing institutional and cultural change in the organizations.

Five Case Studies in 5 countries

PROJECT PARTNERS

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.