Is the society capable of making decisions in science and technology?

– No.

That was the majority response among the 15 researchers who attended the third version of the workshop “How to make my research more responsible? Exploring the RRI ” that was carried out in Solar Laboratory of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

For those attending the course, responsibility in science does not imply giving decision-making capacity to the non-expert public because “lack of knowledge”. Instead, they believe that the concept is much more related to the integrity of the research and to follow professional ethics.

With these first reflections, the participants embarked on an exploration of the RRI through participatory exercises and role-playing games, adapted from the material produced by the HEIRRI project. Thus, the importance of reflecting on the future impacts of research and technological development and asking for the opinion of society-without this determining decision-making-arose. In addition, the participants emphasized scientific education as the central axis to change this situation.

The workshop, given by Luisa Barbosa of the Studies Center on Science, Communication and Society of the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), is part of the training program of the European project GRECO, in which UPF participates together with institutions from five European countries and a Latin American country.

GRECO seeks to put Open Science into practice through a solar energy research project and wants to demonstrate that greater social support leads to an increase in the use and integration of innovative products in this field. Thus, based on the principles of RRI and citizen participation, GRECO proposes solutions to increase the useful life of the technology, reduce its costs with higher performance and bring innovations in agriculture and architecture. The project is funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union (Grant 787289).

  


Este blog cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología – Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación