Synthetic Biology; or the Modern Prometheus
September 12, 2015
When waiting for a plane, I was randomly musing about synthetic biology, responsible innovation and stories – this is the result. Once upon a time there were Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary wrote Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus (first published in 1818; now available in twitter-form, as tweeted by Katie Reeves); …
Ta(l)king responsibility
May 28, 2015
In social science and policy circles there has been a lot of talk about Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). However, nobody quite knows yet what this means and how it works in the context of harsh economic realities. In the meantime, natural scientists have taken responsibility for their research and innovations in the context of …
From recombinant DNA to genome editing: A history of responsible innovation?
March 24, 2015
In this post I shall report on a recent call for ethical and regulatory reflection by scientists engaged in a new genomic technology. I’ll then put this into a historical context of previous initiatives of that kind, and finally ask whether this can be called ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’. CRISPR Recently, a new controversy has …
Responsible Research and Innovation InfoHub
September 24, 2014
In parallel with the launch of the new report Responsible Research and Innovation: Responding to a New Research Agenda, this page acts as a focus and reference point for RRI activities across the University of Nottingham. The effective implementation of RRI into research programmes requires scientists and social science practitioners in RRI to be able to …
New report released on Responsible Research and Innovation
Today sees the launch of a new report on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). The report provides an overview of this emerging agenda, lays out approaches from key funders, and summarises RRI work already being carried out within University of Nottingham. The report also presents recommendations for the University’s future engagement with RRI, based on documentary analysis and …
Anticipation and prediction: A conceptual odyssey
September 7, 2014
A group of us at Making Science Public recently discussed Responsible Research and Innovation and Anticipatory Governance. During this conversation a colleague reminded us that anticipation is not the same as prediction (see also here). This made me think about the meanings of these words and in order to get to grips with them I …
Responsible research and innovation: challenges and opportunities for governance
June 5, 2014
We are delighted to announce a new project, funded by the University of Nottingham’s Bridging the Gaps programme, which will investigate the institution’s approach to Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). RRI has emerged in recent years as a potential bridge between science and society that aims to increase the public value of science. The project …
On being a Science Public
April 24, 2014
POST BY STEVIENNA DE SAILLE I’m currently engaged in researching Responsible Research and Innovation, in particular its mandate for ‘inclusive engagement’. And so, a couple of weeks ago, I took advantage of an opportunity to do some ad-hoc ethnographic field research and went to attend two public engagement events which were part of my local …
3D printing: When science and technology take us by surprise
March 14, 2014
3D printing (or ‘additive’ or ‘digital manufacturing’) has been around for a while (and we’ll see for how long further on in this post); even 4D printing has been around for a while. However, 3D printing only really came into focus for me quite recently, when I came across the metaphors ‘3D printer of life’ …
Responsible innovation: Great expectations, great responsibilities
February 24, 2014
I recently happened to click on a website providing advice to researchers working on ‘medical technologies’. It starts by pointing out that: “Researchers in cutting edge fields are increasingly being asked by funders and regulators to conduct responsible innovation in order to increase the social and economic benefits and effectively manage the risks of their …
MSP bookmarks
- Twitter May 8, 2017
- Social innovations in Europe #RRI November 3, 2015
- Harvey Graff, the undisciplinarian September 20, 2015
- Replacing Pesticides With Genetics August 31, 2015
- Addressing hazardous chemicals in the circular economy August 25, 2015
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