Co-Change – the first online Forum

The first Co-Change Forum was organised as an online learning space for the multiple actors of the Co-Change consortium and its supporting partners, including the Co-Change Labs and their innovation ecosystem partners, the Advisory and Sounding Board members. This was the start of a series of discussions about our vision as a team in general and the Co-Change Labs in particular. Next, the Co-Change RRI Vision was developed based on four themes that have been discussed in a visioning exercise. Participants in four breakout groups elaborated their visions about the following topics: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems & Vehicles, Biogenetics & Agriculture, Digital Humanism.

On the second day (Sept 24, 2020), the Co-Change team dedicated its efforts to the necessary institutional changes towards RRI at the Co-Change labs. The second day of the Forum in practice made a vital step towards setting up Labs change coalitions and action roadmaps. The labs took an effort to co-design their goals, tasks, and roadmap for the next years, involving their innovation ecosystem partners and gaining feedback from Advisory and Sounding Board members. Our Co-Change Labs started to build their roadmaps in the following breakouts: Research Alliance for Autonomous Systems (VTT), Digital Humanism (WWTF), RRI Evaluation Criteria (PL), RRI Consulting Service (TECNALIA), Learning on Machine Learning (AIT), RRIzing (PNRS).

The discussions that followed the lab presentations were lively, raising many fundamental issues, such as questioning existing socio-technical imaginaries, the democratic control of technological development, human self-determination and citizen empowerment, preparing for the unexpected, critically unpacking singular terms (e.g. society), citizen engagement in research funding, etc. The two-day virtual cooperation exercise also provided important lessons for organising for knowledge co-production in the virtual space.