GRRIP makes key contribution to United Nations General Assembly Science Summit
The GRRIP Project (Grounding RRI Practices in Research Performing Organisations) was a key contributor at the recent Science Summit held as part of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA76).
The virtual summit, which takes place over the course of a month from Tuesday, September 14 to Thursday, September 30, seeks to raise awareness of the role and contribution of science to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
As part of the summit a session, held on Tuesday, September 28 and convened by UNESCO, explored ‘Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) for Sustainable Development’.
The session, according to organisers, would “build on the results from two key European Commission RRI projects: RRI Networked Globally (RRING) and Grounding RRI in Research Performing Organisations in Marine and Maritime (GRRIP) to extract lessons and discuss implicit policy instruments such as funding programs, tax incentives, RRI assessment and indicators as a pre-requisite for national calls participation, and explicit policy instruments including migration policies, work permits and statistics laws that need to be strengthened or redefined to support RRI structural change.”
Dr Ruth Callaway’s (FHEA Senior Research Scientist, Swansea University) presentation ‘Implementing RRI in a Public Research Organisation – Swansea University Experience’ detailed the integration of research with societal needs within the GRRIP Project.
Dr Malcom Fisk (Professor of Ageing and Digital Health PhD MA BSc FCIH FRSA Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility De Montfort University, Leicester UK) presented ‘Co-designing structural changes for a more Responsible Research and Innovation within GRRIP project’.
The session also featured contributions from Dr Gordon Dalton, GRRIP and RRING (RRI Networked Globally) project coordinator as well as Ms Juliana Chaves-Chaparro, UNESCO Senior Consultant and Mr Konstantinos Tararas, Programme Specialist, IRD Section, UNESCO Sector for Social and Human Sciences.
The concept of RRI has been heavily promoted by the European Commission in recent years as it is seen as a more inclusive, ethical and open approach with the potential for producing increasingly diverse/engendered science and innovation with stronger governance.
The UNESCO Recommendation on Science and scientific researchers paves the way for RRI relevant aspects such as ethics , diversity and open science. Importantly, the monitoring system for this recommendation requests Member States to report every four years on its implementation and will include RRI related indicators and policy instruments.
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