CALL FOR PAPERS

 

 

How to institutionalize the Responsible Research and Innovation approach:

from theory to reality.

 

 

Science Centre AHHAA in Tartu, Estonia, 18 September 2018

 

 

Responsible Research and Innovation is an independent trend in research and innovation policy. As it requests an involvement of and interaction with societal actors, amongst others policy makers, the uptake of science in policy for evidence based policy making could also benefit from RRI. In this conference we will explore the connection between science and (spatial) policy and its relationship with the RRI perspective from an applied scientific and practical point of view: conceptualization of science policy interaction, case studies, and examples from practice. We are specifically interested to find mechanisms and factors that explain the (realized or failed) connection between science and policy and how we can learn from empirics to improve the science policy interface. Furthermore, we will explore the need and modalities for the institutionalization of RRI related science-policy issues: what should be institutionalized, how can this be institutionalized and what impact do we expect from the institutionalization?

In fact, there are still many barriers in public organisations and research institutions which impede a complete implementation of the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework in relation to evidence based policy making, like lack of public engagement, poor science education, ethics and governance. There can be many reasons for this situation, e.g. little awareness of policy makers and public administrators of the benefits the RRI approach; lack of incentives and formal requirements to scientific bodies; lack of skilled and dedicated staff; not enough financial resources to tackle urgent societal challenges; bureaucracy and scarce coordination inside public structures; skepticism from policy makers about citizens’ capability of taking decisions for the sake of a large community.

 

This conference, organised by the H2020 MARINA project in conjunction with research institutions and policy making bodies, aims at collecting contributions focusing on actions required to improve evidence based policy making related to coastal areas and seas with a specific focus on what RRI could contribute and what role institutionalisation of RRI dimensions by public administrations and research institutions could play to improve evidence based policy making.

Evidence shown by practical case-studies, lessons-learned and best practices adopted in supporting and applying evidence based policy making through RRI mechanisms and its institutionalisation by policy makers, public administrators and research institutions are sought to improve knowledge about which drivers, efforts, means and instruments could improve and institutionalise the participative collaboration of all social actors into the research and innovation process.

The ambitious outcome of the event is the definition of recommendations for improvement of evidence based policy making for seas and coastal zones through RRI-mechanisms, and furthermore how this improvement could be institutionalised. The positive feedback arising from the actual implementation of RRI for evidence based policy making could strengthen political commitment to RRI implementation by increasing demand from society for such an approach.

 

Why relevant?

The selected topic is relevant for scientists, stakeholders, NGOs and policymakers working in the policy areas of seas, coastal zones, including their spatial governance (e.g. Maritime Spatial Planning) and other relevant experiences concerning RRI institutionalization. It will contribute to linking RRI-processes and policy processes that need a strong input from science. The conference will draw conclusions on ways to improve evidenced based policy making for seas and coastal zones, RRI can contribute to this, and what role institutionalisation of these processes could play.

 

The conference call is published in Easychair at https://easychair.org/cfp/TRRIPP2018

 

 

Specific themes of interest to TRRIP 2018 include but are not limited to:

 

• Evidence based policy making for seas and coastal zones;

• Conceptualisation of the science-policy interface with respect to evidence based policy making;

• Impact and use of scientific data and knowledge in policy making;

• Knowledge coproduction and co-creation with stakeholders, scientists and policy makers;

• Benefits and implementation of public engagement in Research and Innovation;

• New models of governance in public administrations and research institutions related to the RRI concept;

• Gaps, barriers, lessons learnt and best practices on institutionalizing the RRI related approaches for evidence based policy making;

• Drivers for institutionalizing relevant RRI mechanisms in evidence based policy making;

• Experiences and recommended actions to embed RRI in the organisational procedures of public administrations and/or research institutions;

• Change Management Approaches for institutionalising RRI.

 

Registration:

You can register yourself at: https://veeb.ahhaa.ee/registration/product/multi-conference-rri-sis-2018/

 

Conference registration fee

​The regular registration fee is of 180,00 Euros.

The students' registration fee is of 100,00 Euros.

The registration fee includes the volume of the proceedings of the Conference, the coffee breaks and lunch during the three days of the multiconference and gives access to all the joint conferences organised in the framework of the M-RRI-SIS 2018 (https://rri-sis.wixsite.com/m-rrisis2018).

 

The link for the registration will be available soon on this page

 

 

Venue:

Science Centre AHHAA, Sadama 1, 51004, Tartu, Estonia

Suggestions for travel and accomodation

 

Conference and Program Chairs

Robert Aps, Senior Scientist, Head of Marine Systems Department, University of Tartu, Estonia

Michael J. Bernstein, researcher, GenØk – Centre for Biosafety, Norway

Jurian Edelenbos, professor of public governance, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Elena Giusta, researcher, Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Italy

Saša Raicevich, researcher, Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Italy

Francesca Ronchi, researcher, Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Italy

Adriaan Slob, policy researcher and advisor, TNO, the Netherlands

Xenia Theodotou Schneider, Owner and Principal Consultant of XPRO Consulting Limited, Cyprus

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Paper submission

The authors  will have to prepare a 10-page research paper, which will be submitted to peer-review.

Paper submissions must be in an electronic form as PDF format and should be uploaded using the Easychair system.

For the submission please, connect yourself at the following link:

 

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=trripp2018

 

Please use the following link for templates to generate your PDF: LINK_TEMPLATE

Or download this sample template (.docx):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16aj4mOAszQsXHM9SOmSqaZK3xlxS7EZW/view?usp=sharing

 

Submitted papers should be at most 10 single-space printed pages; papers that fail to comply with length limit will be rejected. Each paper will be peer-reviewed by at least 3 peer reviewers. Selection criteria will include: relevance, significance, impact, originality, technical soundness, and quality of presentation. Preference will be given to submissions that take strong or challenging positions on important emergent topics related to Responsible Research and Innovation. After the preliminary notification date, authors modify their manuscript according to all reviewers’ inquiries and comments. Based on the rebuttal feedback, reviewers notify authors with the final decision.

The Conference Proceedings will be published by Springer in “Springer Briefs in Research and Innovation Governance” series (http://www.springer.com/series/13811)

At least one author per accepted paper should attend the conference to present it. The related paper will be published in the Conference Proceedings.

 

Planned format of the conference

Duration of the conference: one day

Planned number of accepted papers: 10-12

 

Important Dates

·        

•         July 31, 2018: Deadline for paper submission

•         August 10, 2018: Notification of acceptance

•        August 31, 2018: Submission deadline for the final version of the papers 

•        September 7, 2018: deadline for conference registration

•        September 18, 2018: TRRIPP Conference

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Program Committee

Elena Giusta, ISPRA

Cecilia Silvestri, ISPRA

Adriaan Slob, TNO

 

Jan Cools, University of Antwerp

Saša Raicevich, ISPRA

Francesca Ronchi, ISPRA

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MARINA Policy workshop

The conference will also host a 3 hours policy workshop on RRI implementation in public institutions with the participation of policy makers, RRI implementers and practitioners.