RRI Manifesto

Euskampus Fundazioa is a catalyser for interdisciplinary and multi-agent collaboration that aspires to enhance the co-leadership of its partners, inducing local responses with a high socioeconomic value to challenges that are global. Euskampus’ mission is aimed at strengthening the relationships, connection and mutual trust of its partners in order to increase their joint international projection and impact in the territory, by the promotion and deployment of shared strategic actions of training, research, transfer and dissemination of knowledge.

Euskampus recognizes the responsibility of all the knowledge community to focus on the future of research by working in the present. As such we embrace RRI principles: anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion and responsiveness, as animating forces of all our activities.

To accomplish the goal of RESPONSIBILITY in research and innovation, research professionals and students must understand that policy makers, society and industry are part of this process too from the very beginning. Broadly speaking, research must become open and transparent in order to get the proper information and engagement to truly address societal challenges. This requires the adoption of an inclusive research process, which considers the different voices to move forward into social change.

The cooperation and collaboration of several actors is needed to co-create the solutions required by complex, societal challenges. The effect of involving society actors within the research decision-making process has a direct influence to their sense of active-citizenship, and can have an important impact in policy development, the economy and social well-being and welfare.

To boost a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), we must incorporate different interrelated dimensions of this paradigm: the engagement of the public to participate in the research process, a gender approach to promote an equality and inclusive research, open science to socialize knowledge, a fair governance to secure a democratic research, a good science education to create new research referents, and critical thinking to ensure an ethically sound research.

Furthermore, and following one of the priorities pointed out by European Commission, Euskampus Fundazioa will promote multilingualism for social cohesion and intercultural dialogue, aiming at balancing the needs of efficient and effective communication with the equally vital need to protect and promote cultural and linguistic diversity.

All in all, Euskampus Fundazioa embraces Responsible Research and Innovation, by adopting and promoting:

• Gender equality in science and technology. We believe in the importance of composing gender-balanced research teams, not only to guarantee social equality within research institutions, but also, to bring together the best research talent that our society has.
  Over and above, we want women to be part of the decision-making bodies at research institutions to create democratic, plural and fair research structures.
• Open Access. we believe that publicly funded research should be by nature freely accessible. We believe that privately funded research that produces closed trade secrets and patents, while perfectly fair, should try to make available preliminary results to other scientists.
  Making results available by Open Access, needs a proper recognition to authors.
• Governance that promotes RRI by requiring a RRI, where applicable, approach to the research target definition, evaluation and impact/outcomes review. A clear description of the expectations, performance indicators and evaluation processes should be provided in the project calls.
• Science Literacy. We want science and engineering education to be promoted, and the value of a scientific approach, built on evidences and systematic approach, be enforced since early age. We say “yes” to show the value of the effort this approach implies.

We believe that this effort should address the society to its fullest extension, but concentrating efforts on the K12 age range. School Parent Associations, teachers, representatives and education management ranging from schools to education department should participate on a debate to address this. 

Euskampus is ready to work in a world promoting RRI in all our projects and decisions. We want to make this a reality with you!!!!!