Cooperation with H2020 RRI projects has become part of MARIE’s modus operandi. With a lot to learn, but also a lot to contribute proudly, MARIE is becoming a regular when RRI in regional policies is discussed.
On 19th September 2019, SeeRRI had its first stakeholder workshop in Bologna, Italy: we were there!
SeeRRI is a joint project of 12 partner organisations from 5 countries, financed by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme. In SeeRRI, they are developing a framework for integrating the principles of RRI into regional Smart Specialisation policy: does it ring a bell?
44 participants attended the workshop and MARIE was in good company not just of SeeRRI partners but also TeRRItoria and TeRRIFICA (SeeRRI sister projects).
With a number of “Science With and For Society” projects focusing on embedding RRI in regional policy, there is now a wealth of knowledge, approaches and methodologies to learn about and from.
What is unique about MARIE (apart from being a pioneer project) is the hands-on approach: we started having policy making in mind and policy makers on board of either the consortium of the local stakeholder groups. Also, we needed to deliver actual change of existing policy instruments. I.e. we have real life successful examples of RRI in regional policies to bring to the table. Yet, is always inspiring to see how models can be generalised by a scientific approach and how experience can be condensed in formal knowledge (not that we did not have a sound methodological base: MARIE partner AUEB coordinated us to deliver a methodology for regional RRI maturity mapping, good practice collection and needs-solutions matching that is looked at with interest also by H2020 projects!).
After the meeting, our lead partner Giulia Bubbolini released brief comment on video on what it’s like to bring RRI in regional contexts with attention to businesses. Check it out here.
Photo by Gilles Desjardins on Unsplash.
