Systematic evaluation approaches and alignment with society

2. Aligning citizen science with Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)

This module establishes a crucial connection between CS and the RRI agenda. Learners will gain insights into how to align the mission statements, strategies, and evaluation frameworks of CS initiatives with the principles and processes of RRI. The session will commence with an introduction explaining the significance of bridging CS and RRI. It will then highlight real-world examples of projects that have successfully connected the two domains. Learners will explore the convergences and divergences between CS and RRI, with a focus on the valuable lessons CS can glean from RRI approaches. Additionally, the session will delve into strategies for incorporating RRI, and by extension, CS, into higher education institutions (HEIs) and RPOs. This training equips learners with the knowledge and tools needed to enhance the ethical and responsible dimensions of their CS endeavours, fostering alignment with RRI principles and practices.

Module description:

What?	How?	Why?
Fostering democratic, accountable, and responsive R&I.	Portraying RRI as a framework and approach that seeks to ensure that research and innovation activities are conducted in a way that aligns with societal values and needs, and that they contribute to positive societal outcomes.	Explaining the RRI philosophy to the learners.
Analysis of how Citizen Observatories (COs) have adopted RRI principles.	COs are collaborative initiatives that engage members of the public, including volunteers and local communities, in monitoring and collecting data related to various aspects of the environment, society, or public services.	Demonstrating that COs have adopted some RRI principles such as Open Access and Public Participation in Scientific Research, but not others such as ethics and governance.
Overlaps and divergences between CS and RRI.	Explaining overlaps between CS and RRI, but also their divergences, arguing that citizen science could learn lessons from RRI approaches and processes	Enabling learners to consider CS from an RRI perspective and learn from RRI approaches.
Integrating RRI into higher education institutions and citizen science.	Describing how HEIs can help transform the research and innovation system by developing new normative frameworks, plans to foster dialogue and participatory approaches, policies of openness and inclusivity.	Enabling learners to design a strategy for how to incorporate RRI into HEIs (and citizen science).
Evaluation dimensions for RRI.	Presenting the seven RRI dimensions (Public engagement, Gender equality, Research ethics, Open science, Sustainability (social, economic, and ecological), Science education and outreach, and Governance) and how they may be evaluated in terms of process (formative evaluation) and outcome (summative evaluation)	Providing learners with conceptual tools for evaluations of RRI and CS.

Slide available in slide deck.