Additional Activities

OVERVIEW

Responsible Innovation (RI) helps to manage research and innovation under conditions of uncertainty. COVID-19 is the epitome of uncertainty, with dramatic consequences on health, economics and public policies.

This crisis highlighted the fragility of an economic system that does not embrace sustainable, inclusive development. Its origins are linked to unsustainable human activity. Its disproportionate effects on vulnerable groups reflect lack of inclusiveness.

Post COVID, we must learn from the crisis and ensure that RI takes a central role in how we design our economy and public policy. This is a chance to reinforce MARIE’s message (that innovation must anticipate impact and respond to unforeseeable change) at a time when it risks being swamped by short-term remediation.

Responsible Innovation can contribute to recovery centred on participation and co-creation of innovation that contributes to economic growth AND to a just transition towards sustainable development for all.

Interreg Europe funded an extra year of Additional Activities (September 2021-August 2022), to help MARIE partners to address these topics. Exchange addresses:

• Synergy and coherence between local strategies, policy instruments and funding schemes for green and inclusive recovery from COVID.
• Impact assessment of public policy for responsible recovery, moving from a focus on purely economic or quantitative indicators and booting responsible science, technology and innovation in the COVID recovery period.

ACTIVITIES

Partners are updating their RI Maturity Mapping, seeking to integrate the elements above. They have been working hard at regional level and with interregional input:

• FIRST INTERREGIONAL MEETING – 14 December 2021 (on-line meeting) – RI Maturity Mapping and input presentations from Northern Netherlands and UNESCO
• MASTER CLASS TRANSFORMING S3 TO S4+: Towards a Framework and Methodology for Measurement – 28 February 2022 (on-line meeting) – seminar organised with OECD’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE)
• ROUNDTABLE DIALOGUE: Mainstreaming and Measuring Responsible Research and Innovation: Lessons from Practitioners and Academia – 29 April 2022 (on-line meeting) - seminar organised with OECD
• SECOND INTERREGIONAL MEETING – 12th May 2022 (Hybrid meeting: Athens and on-line) – Interregional comparison of Maturity Mapping, Case Studies from Attica and Southern Region Ireland
• STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP: Steps Towards a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for RRI – 21 June 2022 (on-line meeting) - workshop organised with OECD
• FINAL INTERREGIONAL MEETING - 8th September 2022 (Hybrid Meeting: Santiago de Compostela and on-line) - Rounding up the Additional activities

 RESULTS

MARIE partners worked with the OECD to co-create a self-assessment framework to embed RRI into S3. You can read it here. It is a useful too for all European regions!

And then, you can find out about the legacy of MARIE in our partner regions, in our final video.