Towards a sustainable science. A Model of Responsible Research and Innovation in the Biosciences

The workshop “Towards an open and sustainable science. A Model of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the Biosciences” is being carried out within the STARBIOS2 project, funded by the EU, in collaboration with UNESCO.
The workshop is an occasion to discuss issues connected to RRI and sustainability research with a special focus on the biosciences. RRI is an approach to research and innovation launched by the European Union. A distinctive character of RRI is the focus on the promotion of a more open and sustainable research and innovation process. The STARBIOS2 project is implemented by 11 partners from Europe, Brazil, South Africa and U.S., under the coordination of the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

The project is promoting structural change that is conducive to the practice of RRI within 9 European and international research organizations. One of the objectives of the project is to produce experience-based knowledge on how to make such an approach a common practice within research organizations, especially in the biosciences. This knowledge is formalized in a Model, in turn accompanied by operational Guidelines. During the workshop, in particular, the main contents of the Model will be discussed.

UNESCO has been working for some time on the concept of ‘sustainability science’ and the guidelines in Higher Education (https://en.unesco.org/sustainability-science/guidelines), which link to RRI and STARBIOS2.