About

Co-Change Co-Change

Co-Change focuses on supporting the implementation of institutional change among research and innovation actors. The consortium partners form a network of research organisations, research funding agencies, public administration units, corporations, ethics councils and civil society organisations. Together, they develop tools and practices for responsible research and innovation, for example to reflect on internal norms, values and practices, and to build capacity in (quality) management, ethical and social impact assessment, and monitoring.

Co-Change applies an innovative systemic approach to boost the transformative capacity and leadership for responsible research and innovation through the Co-Change Labs. The Co-Change Labs are spaces for experimentation, where we work to better address societal challenges. We have already implemented, e.g., AI ethics workshops for software developers and the public, responsibility and sustainability training workshop series for research performing organisation management, open science guidelines for research funding organisations, a responsibility by design standard for national and international standardisation organisations, as well as gender equality plans and boards.

As research performing and funding organisations co-evolve in and with the ecosystems in which they are embedded, the project activates change coalitions around each lab, paying particular attention to the interactions and interdependencies of actors in each research and innovation ecosystem. By implementing Co-Change Labs in their ecosystems, we create transformative capacity for change in practices, procedures, rules and norms at the individual and organisational levels. We are addressing the system level by working together with other European research projects and multiplier organisations.

How we organize our work

  • Building on prior knowledge and experience through a stock-taking exercise, WP1 provides a solid foundation for the creation of responsible research practices, leveraging the expertise of the consortium, associated partners and advisors towards understanding responsible research 2.0. We will take stock of previous responsible research projects that feeds into all other work packages while fostering a common understanding and language among project partners. The envisaged ecosystem analysis aims at exploring the needs and challenges for the co-creation of changes.

  • At the core of the project, the tasks in WP2 and WP3 are strongly intertwined. The Co-Change framework foresees simultaneous efforts on institutionalizing responsible research practices in change labs (WP3) and binding them together in a mutually beneficial co-change platform (WP2).

  • Co-Change team will strive to implement the knowledge and inspiration gained from the previous WPs into the partner organizations, aiming thus to achieve profound and sustained changes. The change labs tackle different scientific and operational areas, ranging from digital safety and security, entrepreneurship and development of new business opportunities, human-technology interaction, governance and regulation, good scientific conduct, etc. Four co-change fora and accompanying measures in WP2 will be implemented to support, network and inspire the local efforts in international and inter-sectoral communities of practice. The development of sustainability plans are crucial tasks to foster long-term impacts.

  • WP4 supports partners with change labs with tailored tools for co-creating changes in the five key areas of responsible research. The bi-directional learning, together with findings from the stocktaking exercise, ecosystem analysis, best-practices for dissemination and upscaling as well as finding from the monitoring and assessment will feed into the practical tool box.

  • The project aims at continually communicating the intermediate and final results of the project to potential users, research performing and financing organisations, and promote the project results, disseminate the insights and outputs in repositories, web portals, social media. We will create policy briefs on a comprehensive synthesis of responsible research projects, change labs and project learnings. Moreover, Co-Change partners seek opportunities to co-locate events with multiplier organisations.

  • Finally, a project evaluation framework is designed and applied throughout the running time of the project to assess trends and developments and measure activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts. WP6 not only aims to help steer the open-ended processes in the change labs and change platform, but also to provide a framework for similar efforts in the future.

  • The project coordination and ethics appraisal in WP7 will ensure that Co-Change best cater to new conditions and/or opportunities. It will also provide internal and external project representation, including contacts with the EC and the Sounding and Advisory Board members.

Partners

AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH – Austria

The Center for Innovation Systems & Policy (ISP) within AIT bundles the social, economic, and political science expertise in innovation and new technology. Beyond the project coordination, the AIT team leads WP2: the design of transformative guidelines, co-creating and mutual learning, and the supervision and coaching for co-change labs.

FUNDACION TECNALIA RESEARCH & INNOVATION – Spain

Fundación TECNALIA Research & Innovation is a private, independent, non-profit applied research centre of international excellence. TECNALIA team leads WP3.

ESSRG – Hungary

ESSRG is a small independent research and development company established by environmental social science researchers. ESSRG team leads the project dissemination (WP5).

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT – Netherlands

TU Delft is one of three technical universities in the Netherlands, renowned for the high quality of its research and teaching. TU Delft team is the leader of WP6.

Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, Poljoprivredni fakultet Novi Sad – Serbia

The Faculty of Agriculture (PFNS) of the University of Novi Sad (UNS) leads a change lab and take part in the related activities of WP2 and WP3.

WIENER WISSENSCHAFTS FORSCHUNGS UND TECHNOLOGIEFONDS – Austria

The Vienna Science and Technology Fund is the only major private funding organization for scientific research in Austria. WWTF will implement a change lab and take part in WP2-3.

Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy – Finland

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (VTT) is a state-owned and controlled non-profit limited liability company. VTT team leads WP1 and WP4.

PIRKANMAAN LIITTO – Finland

Pirkanmaan liitto (Council of Tampere Region in English) is a Finnish regional council of Tampere Region operating as regional development and regional planning authority.

Advisory board

Sounding board

Community of RRI Projects

ETHNA System

Ethics Governance System for RRI in Higher Education, Funding and Research Centres.

https://ethnasystem.eu/

GRACE

Grounding RRI Actions to Achieve Institutional Change in European Research Funding and Performing Organisations.

http://grace-rri.eu/

GRRIP

Grounding RRI practices in research performing organisations.

https://grrip.eu/

RESBIOS

RESponsible research and innovation grounding practices in BIOSciencies.

https://resbios.eu/

NewHoRRIzon

Integrating RRI in the R&I systems on national and international levels.

https://newhorrizon.eu/

Time4CS

Supporting sustainable Institutional Changes to promote Citizen Science in Science and Technology

https://www.time4cs.eu/

TechEthos

TechEthos deals with the ethics of new and emerging technologies anticipated to have high socio-economic impact.

https://www.techethos.eu/

ROSiE Forum

ROSiE Forum for Responsible Open Science is a new space where practitioners from the communities of Citizen Science, Open Science, and Responsible Research and Innovation meet to share knowledge and experience, discuss challenges and opportunities, and strengthen the knowledge base about Research Ethics and Research Integrity in Open Science and beyond.

https://rosie-project.eu/forum/

SUPER MoRRI - RRI Ecosysytem

SUPER MoRRI ecosystem holds virtual meetings regularly and develops a data and information hub with participating projects.

https://super-morri.eu/rri-ecosystem/

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