The impact of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)

In this paper, we show how the policy concept Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) intends to offer added value to scientific research processes and its manifold results and how these anticipated benefits can be measured. We set out to address the recognized challenge of impact monitoring for projects working with RRI by developing a template that can pay attention to the so far hardly considered outputs, outcomes and impacts of a particular RRI project. Its usage goes beyond monitoring and evaluating purposes at the end of a project, as our proposed set of indicators can provide scholars and practitioners with guidance and inspiration in the early design or implementation phase of a project. From a policy-making point of view, this paper also highlights that developing monitoring and evaluation systems can significantly profit from stakeholder engagement and co-creation approaches, adding a bottom-up perspective to top-down suggestions of the research funders.