From co-operative values to responsible innovation

Résumé 0

The concept of ‘responsible innovation’ (or ‘responsible research and innovation’) is gaining increasing momentum at a European level as a novel approach to support the responsible development and emergence of innovation in democratic society. The European Commission is underpinning the European Research Area with the concept, framed within its Horizon 2020 Strategy and the ‘Innovation Union’. This paper summarises emerging thinking concerning responsible innovation, stressing that its departure point is reflection on the purposes and motivations for innovation, anchored in co-operative values, and directed towards ‘the right impacts’. Responsible innovation seeks to ensure that innovation is targeted at, and stewarded in real time towards, socially acceptable and desirable ends in the face of uncertainty, in a way that is anticipatory, reflective, deliberative and – ultimately- responsive, coupling reflection to action and creating opportunities for innovation. Concepts of co-operation and co-responsibility are key to this, reflecting the complex, globalised nature of innovation itself.