Abstract:

The concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI) has been gaining visibility in the EU during the last years. As a result, public funding has been orientated to the promise or expectation of socially-beneficial impacts by means of the social contract for science. In this contest, three features of RRI have been identified and related to the idea of science for society: a) democratising the governance of intent, b) institutionalising responsiveness, and c) reframing responsibility. Referred to the last one, scientists´ responsibilities are well known, including those associated with concepts of research integrity which make explicit such morally unacceptable behaviours as data falsification and plagiarism. Thus, the concept of RRI confers new responsibilities and not only on scientists but on universities, innovators, businesses, policy-makers and research funders. However, the growth of scientific research during the past decades has outpaced the public resources available to fund it and as a consequence identification of promising research includes measures to assess the quality of scientific research itself, but also to determine its societal impact. With the aim of promoting RRI, EIDOS, a research group in Materials Science (University of the Basque Country), has been developing and improving its own management system for the last nine years, and this work explains the indicators used to measure the scientific and societal impact associated to the results generated by EIDOS doctoral students. In order to evaluate this impact, the evolution of the formation plan of doctorates during the last 8 years has been studied. The analysis includes both specific and transversal skills that are formulated through scientific and social objectives in the technical reports produced by EIDOS. The results indicate that RRI increases the personal satisfaction and motivation of the researches.

References:
[1] R. Owen, P. Macnaghten and J. Stilgoe (2012). Responsible research and innovation: From science in society to science for society, with society. Science and Public Policy 39 pp. 751–760.
[2] H. E. Douglas (2003). The moral responsibilities of scientists (tensions between autonomy and responsibility)’, American Philosophical Quarterly, 40 pp. 59–68.
[3] L. Bornmann (2012). Measuring the societal impact of research, EMBO reports 13, pp. 673-676

Keywords:

doctoral students, research impact, responsible research and innovation.