Main purpose of the jobRRI Practice is a European Commission Horizon 2020 funded project that aims to analyse responsible research and innovation (RRI) related discourses and pathways to implementation in order to identify, understand, disseminate and promote RRI implementation best practices that can be scaled up at European and global levels. The project team has a truly global reach in that it includes 14 academic partners from across Europe as well as from China, India, USA, Brazil and Australia.
The main purpose of the postdoctoral position is to lead Wageningen University's contribution to a project, under supervision.
About the project teamThe team leader of the Wageningen University research, Professor Phil Macnaghten has extensive expertise in the governance of science and technology and in the development of frameworks of responsible (research and) innovation. The Wageningen team further includes Dr Barbara van Mierlo (KTI), who specialises on understanding system innovation trajectories of innovation networks aimed at sustainability practices, Dr David Ludwig (KTI), who specialises in the philosophy of RRI, and Dr Vincent Blok, who specialises on sustainable entrepreneurship, business ethics and responsible innovation at the Management Studies Chair Group. Drawing on this expertise, the Wageningen team will draw particularly on the integrative and comparative work packages where Wageningen has a dedicated role. The RRI Practice project is already six months under way. Dr David Ludwig (KTI), who was employed as the RRI Practice postdoc, has now a faculty position at KTI resulting in this vacancy.
Main duties and accountabilities:To be accountable, under supervision, for the delivery of tasks, workpackages and deliverables as outlined in the project proposal:
- To plan, co-ordinate and lead on the successful delivery of the research project within the allocated time frame and within the allocated budget.
- To conduct a RRI Review on Wageningen University aimed at understanding the current framing and status of RRI in the organization and to feed the findings into a National RRI Outlook in partnership with Radboud University Nijmegen. Preliminary work has already been undertaken.
- To develop a RRI Outlook for Wageningen University that will outline important goals, means and targets for the work related to the EC RRI keys (ethics, societal relevance, gender, open access/ open science and science education) - and RRI more broadly understood - in the organisation.
- To lead the RRI Internal Review that will provide a reflexive learning tool for project partners. Using the anticipation-inclusion-reflexivity-responsiveness (AIRR) framework as a reference, activities will be developed aimed at understanding and contextualizing RRI in the project teams' own practices. Preliminary work has already been undertaken in the form of initial interviews with members of the project consortium. Further work will include a next round of interviews and possibly a set of focus groups comparing institutional discourses on RRI with lay understanding.
- To lead the comparative analysis of national discourses and practices on RRI to explore why certain keys and dimensions of RRI are developed in some national and local contexts and not others.
- To disseminate complex and conceptual ideas arising from the project to stakeholders and peers using high level skills and a range of media and to present the results of the research to academic and policy audiences through the writing of peer-reviewed journal articles and at conferences when opportunities arise.