Hi, and welcome to the Societal Readiness Thinking Tool. The thinking tool offers practical guidance for researchers who wish to mature the societal readiness of their work. The primary goal is to help researchers align their project activities with societal needs and expectations. The thinking tool asks reflective questions to stimulate thinking about how to integrate ideas about responsible research and innovation into research practice, at different stages in the project life. We have designed the tool so that it is useful for researchers engaged in new as well as ongoing projects. Some of the reflective questions used in the tool are adapted from other RRI projects. References for these projects and a detailed account of the tool’s underlying methodology is available here. If your project involves several researchers, we recommend that the full team is involved in using the Societal Readiness Thinking Tool together, and that you reserve sufficient time for discussions along the way. Ideally, the team would use the tool from the from the earliest phases of the project and return at later stages thougout the project life. You can learn more about the tool’s RRI terminology here.
To use the tool, start by registering your project. Registering allows you to save your work and continue at a later point in time. The tool can also be used without registration. Next, select your project’s current research phase. Then select if you want to use the tool based on a specified entry point (i.e. your specific motivation for using the tool), or tick off the RRI-related keys or conditions that you wish to focus on. When you are done using the tool, you can download a summary of your work in a PDF file. The thinking tool includes ‘tool-tips’ to help you navigate the tool. It also includes a selection of methods and resources that might inspire your own work. See our three-minute introductory video for further instructions on how to use the tool.
At its core, responsible research and innovation (RRI) is about aligning scientific knowledge production with broader societal needs and expectations. It confers new responsibilities on scientists by committing them to reflect carefully upon the societal implications of their work. Building on key contributions in the RRI-literature, the thinking tool distinguishes two interrelated approaches to responsibility: conditions and keys.
The conditions approach differentiates four “devises for reflection” that may help give shape to the research process by cultivating a forward-looking perspective on responsibility.
The RRI keys specify the core ingredients of responsibility in research and innovation projects. The thinking tool contains questions pertaining to the five following RRI keys: public engagement, open access, science education, gender and ethics.
Try our thinking tool, to see how the RRI conditions can be operationalized into reflective questions.
Note: The text presented on this webpage is adapted from Nielsen, M. W., Mejlgaard, N., Alnor, E., Griessler, E., & Meijer, I. (2018). Ensuring Societal Readiness: A thinking tool, Deliverable 6.1, NewHoRRIZON