The institutionalisation of a new paradigm at policy level

The concept of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has experienced a remarkable career within the European Union's policies for funding research and innovation, culminating in the embedding of RRI as a cross-cutting issue in the Horizon 2020 (H2020) framework programme. However, despite favourable conditions, empirical evidence shows that efforts to mainstream RRI at the level of policy practice and implementation by and large failed. With the aim of better understanding the reasons for the limited success of mainstreaming RRI, the authors draw on the concept of Deep Institutionalisation (DI) and adapt it to the analysis of institutionalisation processes related to policy practice and implementation. The adapted DI concept is applied to H2020 by using recent findings from RRI research to provide empirical illustration. The results suggest that key preconditions for the successful institutionalisation of RRI policies were not fulfilled. Specifically, broader policy debates reaching beyond the confines of a small policy arena within the European Commission, a lack of experimental embedding allowing for adjustment to different contexts, and the development of ownership in particular were not achieved. Building on the cornerstones of the DI concept, the authors conclude that attempts to mainstream RRI in H2020 have been premature.