Developing 'Alternative Practices' for Responsible Research and Innovation in the UK and Japan

The aim of this Connections grant is to develop 'alternative practices' for Responsible Research and Innovation in the UK and Japan. Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a method of governing emerging scientific fields that aims to provide opportunities to explore questions about the type of future we want science and technology to bring into being. It often involves engaging with a range of stakeholders in 'upstream' conversations to inform the creation of scientific knowledge. Even while gaining traction, however, RRI is at risk of becoming a narrowly defined requirement - a set of boxes to be ticked rather than an opportunity for reflection. It is also at risk of becoming narrowed in geographic and cultural terms. 'Best practices' for RRI are being developed in Western countries and then exported to other cultural contexts. Japanese researchers are beginning to develop their own formulations of RRI, particularly in the wake of the 2011 'triple disaster.' However, Japanese versions of RRI, looking for established models, may end up reproducing narrowed and formulaic interpretations of RRI, which are not adequately sensitive to differences in context. Juxtaposing the UK and Japan draws attention to the inadequacy of exporting methods from countries with established RRI practices to countries where those practices are still developing. Our approach calls instead for international collaborative learning to promote continued reflection and openness to new possibilities amongst all participants.

We aim to mobilise cross-national collaboration to develop a more expansive and imaginative trajectory for RRI - one that creates a space for autonomous and critical research in the social sciences and humanities while also being closely informed by the scientific work. We will draw on the diverse experiences of the investigators across Japan and the UK and across the social sciences and humanities. We aim to explore 'alternative' rather than 'best' practices, in the form of heuristics rather than guidelines and case studies rather than tick boxes, to demonstrate and encourage the kind of broad, contextualised thinking necessary to develop science and technology in light of social concerns and interests.

We propose two two-day workshops, one in Edinburgh and one in Tokyo, with the latter developing on the former. Our four focal topic areas for these workshops - synthetic biology, molecular robotics, artificial intelligence, and genomic medicine - reflect areas of shared interest across the UK and Japan and the expertise of the research team. The rapid development of these fields in both countries raises timely questions and concerns that will form the empirical grounding for our conversations. The primary output of the proposed workshops will be a strong UK-Japanese network able to pursue a larger and more substantial programme of research on alternative practices for RRI through a collaborative grant application.

The workshop report generated after the conclusion of our events can be expected to have an immediate impact on stakeholders including policy and governance staff and science communication practitioners in the UK and Japan. Individuals working in these areas may be tasked with developing and implementing RRI, and are likely to seek models or best practices for doing so. By providing a heuristic from an authoritative source that supports a more contextual and creative approach to implementing RRI, we create an alternative option to programmatic approaches with the potential to impact how RRI is implemented in diverse settings. Institutions in the UK and Japan who are likely to benefit from this workshop report include: learned societies (the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society, the Science Council of Japan); research funders (BBSRC, EPSRC, the Wellcome Trust, the European Commission, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development); expert advisory groups (the Nuffield Council on Bioethics); NGOs and NPOs (ETC group, Greenpeace, Citizen's Science Initiative Japan); public engagement practitioners (Sciencewise); science communication bodies (Science Media Centre); government departments and bodies (UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, Japan National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, Japan Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society); and large and small companies (e.g. Cambridge Consultants and Synthace). Our workshop report and website will be our primary means of communicating and engaging with these stakeholder groups.

Impacts from the proposed activities will primarily be delivered via the larger, longer term grant for which this project is preparation. The research team have strong track records of building stakeholder engagement activities into their work and of delivering impacts particularly in policy and amongst wider publics. We anticipate building similar activities into the anticipated future project, including workshops involving stakeholders in policy, governance, and public deliberation roles, reports written with policy and governance audiences in mind, and public engagement events using art and design to provoke curiosity and critical thinking about emerging science and technology amongst wider audiences.

An additional set of medium- to long-term impacts are expected to be delivered via the capacity-building functions of our two workshops and by establishing a strong UK-Japan network around RRI. Workshop participants will be equipped with specific case studies of RRI challenges, 'alternative' responses to those challenges across two national contexts, and conceptual tools for re-imagining RRI in reflexive and context-sensitive ways. Because our workshops will involve many of the key research staff working on RRI in the UK and Japan, these events have the potential for widespread impact by influencing how these individuals engage in myriad subsequent RRI activities. This should result in increased space for researcher reflection on the social dimensions of their work, increased space for multi-group conversations around those concerns, and scientific research that actively and attentively responds to social considerations in the course of producing scientific knowledge itself.

Finally, additional medium- and long-term impacts can be expected to accrue from the training and networking opportunities afforded to the four early career researchers amongst the co-investigators and named staff (Kawamura, Mikami, Smith, Szymanski), who will develop international connections that they would otherwise have been unlikely to make, which may enable further collaborations.