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Teaching Responsible Research and Innovation: A Phronetic Perspective

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Abstract

Across the European research area and beyond, efforts are being mobilized to align research and innovation processes and products with societal values and needs, and to create mechanisms for inclusive priority setting and knowledge production. A central concern is how to foster a culture of “Responsible Research and Innovation” (RRI) among scientists and engineers. This paper focuses on RRI teaching at higher education institutions. On the basis of interviews and reviews of academic and policy documents, it highlights the generic aspects of teaching aimed at invoking a sense of care and societal obligation, and provides a set of exemplary cases of RRI-related teaching. It argues that the Aristotelian concept of phronesis can capture core properties of the objectives of RRI-related teaching activities. Teaching should nurture the students’ capacity in terms of practical wisdom, practical ethics, or administrative ability in order to enable them to act virtuously and responsibly in contexts which are often characterized by uncertainty, contention, and controversy.

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Notes

  1. More information on the project at http://heirri.eu/.

  2. The dilemma game can be found here: https://www.eur.nl/fileadmin/ASSETS/ieb/integriteit/24708_integriteitsspel_interactief_2016.pdf.

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Acknowledgements

The work reported in this paper was performed in the context of the “Higher Education Institutions and Responsible Research and Innovation” (HEIRRI) project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 666004. The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable advice offered by two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 7, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Niels Mejlgaard & Malene Vinther Christensen

  2. Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen, Parkveien 9, 5020, Bergen, Norway

    Roger Strand

  3. Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, University of Split School of Medicine, Šoltanska 2, 21000, Split, Croatia

    Ivan Buljan & Ana Marušić

  4. Health Sciences Education Research Group, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, C/Aiguader 88, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Mar Carrió & Gemma Rodríguez

  5. Association of Catalan Public Universities (ACUP) and Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi), Carrer de la Vila, UAB Campus, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    Marta Cayetano i Giralt

  6. Institute for Advanced Studies, Josefstädter Straße 39, 1080, Vienna, Austria

    Erich Griessler, Alexander Lang & Milena Wuketich

  7. Studies Centre on Science, Communication and Society, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, C/Aiguader 88, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Gema Revuelta & Núria Saladié

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  1. Niels Mejlgaard
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  2. Malene Vinther Christensen
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  3. Roger Strand
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  4. Ivan Buljan
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  5. Mar Carrió
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  6. Marta Cayetano i Giralt
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  7. Erich Griessler
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  8. Alexander Lang
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  9. Ana Marušić
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  10. Gema Revuelta
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  11. Gemma Rodríguez
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  12. Núria Saladié
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  13. Milena Wuketich
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Correspondence to Niels Mejlgaard.

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Mejlgaard, N., Christensen, M.V., Strand, R. et al. Teaching Responsible Research and Innovation: A Phronetic Perspective. Sci Eng Ethics 25, 597–615 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-018-0029-1

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