On July 8th and 9th 2015 the AXIOM Project, represented by Andrea Rovai, University of Siena, Italy, took part in a 2-days meeting in Brussels organized by an EC-funded H2020 project named RRI-ICT.
RRI-ICT, acronym for “responsible research and innovation in information and communication technology”, was born the first of January 2015, aiming at analyzing, supporting and promoting the contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), and the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach in ICT research and innovation under H2020.The meeting focused on the importance of responsible research in Europe, and the urgency of a collaborative strategy between RRI/SSH-intensive (H2020 & non-H2020) ICT-related projects to tackle this topic.
The first day Stephanie Morales, Project Manager of RRI-ICT in Europe, and Roger Torrenti, CEO of Sigma Orionis, introducted the topic with a fast digression in the most concerned subjects, like privacy, Big Data and the need of shared policies for Europe. Nicole Dewandre, advisor for societal issues to the Director General of the Directorate General for Communications, Networks, Content and Technologies (DG CONNECT) at the European Commission, explained the Onlife Manifesto, a pamphlet about the issues of the Modern Age, previously distributed to participants. Successively, after an ice-breaking session and a quick overview of the RRI-ecosystem, the attendees were grouped into several teams in order to address the question: “What would make us confident and proud regarding our commitment for responsibility in ICT-related Research and Innovation?” The debated answers then got showcased on the main wall and further discussed.
The second day Robert Madelin, Director-General of DG Connect, started the meeting with a talk entitled “Opening address: is it hard to reconcile responsibility and innovation?” Additional insights followed, worth noting the one of Rob Van Kranenbrug regarding the societal impact and responsibility in the context of IoT applications. During the section entitled “Designing the action plan”, the audience got separated in various teams in order to explore the topic of translating RRI principles into action. After a brief explanation of the website and the wiki forum of the project, Ziga Turk, Professor in Construction Informatics at the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering at the University of Ljubljana, gave his concluding remarks and Nicole Dewandre closed the event.
The photo gallery of the event can be found on the Facebook page of the AXIOM Project. Additional pics are present on the AXIOM’s Twitter newsfeed.
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