From Ethical Review to Responsible Research and Innovation

2Responsible Research and Innovation: a Composite and Ambitious Notion

2.1. Introduction

Chapter 1 analyzed the ethical reviews (ERs) that apply to all research projects, sometimes very close to innovation. These requirements include the responsibilities that are peculiar to research and innovation. Despite the value of these ERs and their stability as well as legitimacy, we saw that they were a long way from covering the scope of ethics. They are also close to the ethical threshold and almost entirely portray ethical principles inherited from bioethics and more broadly from deontological ethics if these assessments are considered from the point of view of moral theories.

Could the ERs be more responsible, providing more room for the creativity of applicants in research projects? Can they accompany them in taking up responsibilities? In other words, observers of the evolution of European research financing have witnessed the arrival of H2020 with a new design/conception; that of responsible research and innovation (RRI). In addition, this transversal research topic has also reconfigured the Science and Society research program. This new concept has surprised many researchers in general, as well as those involved in sciences and society programs in particular. If the ERs have requested apprenticeships and appropriations by research communities, the RRI still remains enigmatic. We could take the growing number of new requests from aid providers during the drafting of European ...