Responsible innovation

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, often referred to as Industry 5.0, is defined by the growing integration of digital technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) into organizational processes and societal infrastructures. Among these advances, workplace robotization has emerged as a particularly transformative force, promising enhanced productivity, efficiency, and flexibility across a range of industries. Robots are now commonly deployed in sectors as diverse as manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, and logistics, performing tasks that span from complex assembly operations to customer service interactions.

The Synaptic Civilization Framework (SCF) represents a paradigmatic response to what Alvin Toffler identified as the collision between industrial-age institutions and information-age realities. This analysis examines the SCF's proposal for technological augmentation of democratic governance through three interconnected systems: the Dynamic Model of Reality, Oracle Network, and Human Interface Portal. Drawing from futures studies, complexity theory, democratic innovation, and cybernetics, this paper evaluates the framework's potential to address contemporary "information pathologies" while preserving democratic legitimacy. The analysis situates the SCF within broader theoretical traditions from Norbert Wiener's cybernetics to contemporary collective intelligence research, examining both its transformative potential and inherent limitations. While the framework faces substantial technical, political, and philosophical challenges, its integration of artificial intelligence with democratic accountability mechanisms represents a significant evolution in thinking about technological governance. The paper concludes that incremental development of SCF principles through sector-specific applications offers the most promising path forward, with particular emphasis on maintaining human agency and cultural diversity. This research contributes to emerging scholarship on post-industrial governance, technological democracy, and the future of collective decision-making in complex adaptive systems.

This paper examines the persistent confusion between artificial intelligence (AI) and human consciousness. Drawing on philosophy of mind, theology, and ethics, it argues that conflating computational artifacts with conscious experience constitutes a category mistake. The paper introduces the Qatrani Epistemic Distinction Model (Q-EDM), which establishes three propositions: (1) ontological non-equivalence between AI and human beings, (2) the epistemic scope constraint that AI simulations lack semantics or qualia, and (3) an ethical-policy imperative to focus on governance, bias, and accountability rather than attributing metaphysical agency to machines. By clarifying these distinctions, the paper provides a conceptual framework to guide researchers and policymakers, ensuring that AI remains a powerful tool but never a substitute for human existence.

L'objectiu del treball és analitzar quina és l'aplicació actual de l'aprenentatge cooperatiu a la Universitat de Girona, valorar-ne els punts forts i febles i extreure'n criteris, idees o principis. Aquests materials serviran de referència en el marc del procés

While the concept of Responsible Innovation is increasingly common among researchers and policy makers, it is still unknown what it means in a business context. This study aims to identify which aspects of Responsible Innovation are conceptually similar and dissimilar from social-and sustainable innovation. Our conceptual analysis is based on literature reviews of responsible-, social-, and sustainable innovation. The insights obtained are used for conceptualising Responsible Innovation in a business context. The main conclusion is that Responsible Innovation differs from social-and sustainable innovation as it: (1) also considers possible detrimental implications of innovation, (2) includes a mechanism for responding to uncertainties associated with innovation and (3) achieves a democratic governance of the innovation. However, achieving the latter will not be realistic in a business context. The results of this study are relevant for researchers, managers and policy makers who are interested in responsible innovation in the business context.

The upcoming concept of responsible innovation seems to gain foothold in Europe and beyond, but it still remains unknown how it can be implemented in the business context. This article explores how social entrepreneurs integrate values into their de facto responsible innovations, and provides empirically informed strategies to develop, implement and scale these innovations. It is based on an empirical investigation of 42 case studies of bestpractice social entrepreneurs. This empirical study shows that social entrepreneurs focus on creating direct socio-ethical value for their target beneficiaries. They coordinate collective stakeholder action to develop, implement and scale their systems-changing solutions. And their bottom-up innovations are evaluated and scaled for impact. Ultimately, institutional support is sought to create topdown systems change. This article suggests a synthesised model of integrated strategies for responsible innovation that also covers implementation and scaling of innovation.

Why is reflexivity needed to transform coloniality in participatory research? In this chapter I critically reflect on my shifting positionalities as an Indonesian field researcher and a doctoral researcher in Germany to argue that in postcolonial Indonesia politics of development is inherent in knowledge co-production. I illustrate emergent and relational forms of participation through my embodied experiences of ‘transdisciplinary moments’. Based on an example of transdisciplinary research I demonstrate how a ‘technicalization’ of societal transformation contributes to the marginalization of the ‘geo- and body-politics’ of knowledge. I contend that reflexive participatory research that is based on the inseparability of bodily experience and the geographical–historical location of knowing could potentially transform coloniality in participatory research practice.

The introduction of new energy technologies may lead to public resistance and contestation. It is often argued that this phenomenon is caused by an inadequate inclusion of relevant public values in the design of technology. In this paper we examine the applicability of the value sensitive design (VSD) approach. While VSD was primarily introduced for incorporating values in technological design, our focus in this paper is expanded towards the design of the institutions surrounding these technologies, as well as the design of stakeholder participation. One important methodological challenge of VSD is to identify the relevant values related to new technological developments. In this paper, we argue that the public debate can form a rich source from which to retrieve the values at stake. To demonstrate this, we have examined the arguments used in the public debate regarding the exploration and exploitation of shale gas in the Netherlands. We identified two important sets of the underlyi...

To effectively address grand challenges, such as decarbonization, digitalization and demographic change, engagement is required from diverse actors across policy-making, private business, academia and civil society. Contemporary transformation literature emphasizes Participatory Policy-making (PPM) instruments as critical tools in this process. PPM purportedly enhances both the effectiveness and efficiency of public policies while simultaneously strengthening their legitimacy-a function particularly valuable for socially contested policy issues. However, critical perspectives highlight various theoretical and practical concerns associated with PPM implementation. This article aims to contribute to deliberative theory and practice by presenting a risk-based perspective on PPM that examines intended effects in relation to unintended consequences and contextual factors. Drawing on the lessons learned during PPM projects in Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, and Switzerland, we explore the opportunities and challenges of introducing PPM instruments at the local level within transformative societal processes. Specifically, we investigate the implementation of a set of participatory instrumentssuch as stakeholder workshops, Delphi surveys, focus groups and citizen panels-over a three-year period from 2021 to 2023. We identify four key contextual conditions influencing the prospects for successful PPM: Local political situation, trust and social capital, institutional commitment, and deliberative capacities. Based on these findings, we develop a set of guiding questions, aimed to support practitioners to develop deliberative strategies that anticipate and mitigate unintended negative consequences, such as the deceleration of essential policy changes or the erosion of political legitimization.

Social innovation (SI) is a potential solution to various problems and challenges in the agriculture sector. Agri-tech start-ups can be considered important agents for developing SI in the sector. In Indonesia, agri-tech start-ups are also expected to develop SI for sustainable agricultural development in the medium-term national development plan 2020-2024. Using multiple case studies, this paper attempts to complement the currently available literature and deepen the knowledge regarding the differences between SI and traditional innovation. This research also discusses the role of business organizations, represented by agri-tech start-ups, in developing SI, by observing the diffusion model and innovation-decision process. This research identifies characteristics of SI theoretically complemented with empirical description. Three models of diffusion leading to different types of innovation-decision processes and communication channels are identified. Several internal and external factors are influencing the diffusion process. In the process, the start-ups also hold bridging roles that vary according to company characteristics. Practical implications regarding successful SI development are provided.

In this article, we present and analyse the concept of Digital Twin (DT) linked to distinct types of objects (artefacts, natural, inanimate or living) and examine the challenges involved in creating them from a fundamental neuroethics approach that emphasises conceptual analyses. We begin by providing a brief description of DTs and their initial development as models of artefacts and physical inanimate objects, identifying core challenges in building these tools and noting their intended benefits. Next, we describe attempts to build DTs of model living entities, such as hearts, highlighting the novel challenges raised by this shift from DTs of inanimate to DTs of living objects. Against that background, we give an account of contemporary research aiming to develop DTs of the human brain by building "virtual brains", e.g. the simulation engine The Virtual Brain (TVB) as it is carried out in the European Human Brain Project. Since the brain is structurally and functionally t...

In the digital age, innovation has become a driving force for competitive advantage, yet it also introduces complex ethical challenges that demand responsible leadership. This paper explores the critical role of ethical leadership in navigating digital transformation while maintaining a balance between technological advancement and organizational responsibility. Drawing on real-world case studies, ethical theories, and governance frameworks, the study examines key ethical risks, such as data privacy breaches, algorithmic bias, and workforce displacement, emphasizing the importance of proactive leadership in mitigating these issues. Frameworks like the OECD Principles and King IV are analyzed for their relevance in digital oversight, while ethical decision-making models, including utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics, provide a foundation for principled action. The paper also outlines strategies for fostering innovation responsibly, including ethical AI implementation, stakeholder engagement, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) integration. Organizations such as Microsoft and Salesforce are highlighted for their exemplary approaches, contrasting with ethical lapses such as Uber’s data breach incident. Ultimately, the study concludes that ethical leadership is not a constraint on innovation but a catalyst for sustainable success, trust, and long-term value creation. A call to action is made for businesses and policymakers to institutionalize ethics at the core of digital transformation strategies to ensure inclusivity, transparency, and societal benefit in the evolving digital economy.

The field of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) draws from a full range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities to examine how science and technology simultaneously shape and are shaped by society, including politics and culture. Although engineering educators and employers have recognized the importance of professional (nontechnical) skills for over 100 years, the instructional strategies and institutional arrangements necessary to help students develop these skills have not yet settled into a widely adopted standard. Many engineering programs have turned to STS to provide students with conceptual tool kits to think about engineering problems and solutions in more sophisticated ways. Some programs feature standalone courses on the sociocultural aspects of technology and engineering, often taught by faculty from outside the engineering school. Others incorporate STS material into traditional engineering courses, e.g., by making ethical or societal impact assessments part of capstone projects. This work in progress paper draws on the research team's personal experience to examine the character of an atypical, but potentially very powerful, model: STS programs embedded in engineering schools in the United States and Canada. The authors expand on previous scholarship by Kathryn Neeley, Caitlin Wylie, and Bryn Seabrook in "In Search of Integration: Mapping Conceptual Efforts to Apply STS to Engineering Education," as presented at the 2019 ASEE annual conference, to examine how STS is incorporated in engineering education. While Neeley, Wylie, and Seabrook focused on broad trends within a single, large professional society (ASEE), this study focuses on two particular embedded STS programs, with an emphasis on how the research team describes STS for engineers and encourages meaningful integration. What does the field of STS offer engineering students? What core STS concepts and approaches do we teach to engineering students? The authors explore these and other related questions by analyzing how a small sample of programs became embedded within engineering schools, how each program attends to accreditation outcomes, and how they approach teaching STS to engineers. In future work, the research team hopes to create a preliminary typology of embedded STS programs, explore the term "embedded," and find commonalities in the courses offered in embedded programs.

The new book edited by Rodríguez and colleagues focuses on the topic of forecasting and responsible innovation. The original title is "Anticipación e Innovación Responsible: La construcción de futuros alternativos para la ciencia y la tecnologia" (Forecasting and Responsible Innovation: The construction of alternative futures for science and technology), and was published by Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid. Throughout this text, the reviewer is using the term forecasting instead of anticipation to convey the Spanish concept of "anticipación." Both concepts are usually applied to "the act of looking forward" (Merriam-Webster dictionary 1 ) or "the act of expecting or foreseeing something; expectation or presentiment" (Farlex free dictionary 2 ) The concept of forecasting is usually used in scientific debate to mean "to estimate or predict in advance" (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2016) or "the process of making predictions based on past and present data and most commonly by analysis of trends" (Wikipedia 3 ) (Glenn, 1994, p. 4) expressed this definition well by saying that "studying the future is not simply economic projections or sociological analysis or technological forecasting, but a multi-disciplinary examination of change in all major areas of life to find the interacting dynamics that are creating the next age." The concept has been developed mainly by Armstrong ( ) and followed by , among others. The editors are professors and researchers from the University of Basque Country (EHU) and from the University of Mondragon (MU). The book involves a whole set of experts on the topic, including the editors themselves (Hannot Rodríguez, Sergio Urueña, Andoni Eizagirre, and Oier Imaz), and Armin Grunwald, René von Schomberg, Javier Garcia Fronti, Domingo García Marzá, Andoni Ibarra, and others. Although still published just in Spanish, it is an important contribution to the social sciences and philosophy of sciences regarding the analysis of alternative sociotechnical futures with strong ethical principles, which delineates an innovative approach in an era when the formation of public opinion largely suffers from systematic distortions based on vested interests.

Evidence-based strategies for Industry, Innovation, and infrastructure designed for organizational leadership and impact. This whitepaper provides actionable insights for businesses, governments, and NGOs seeking to align their operations with Sustainable Development Goal 9 while driving sustainable economic growth and social prosperity.

Evidence-based strategies for Industry, Innovation, and infrastructure designed for organizational leadership and impact. This whitepaper provides actionable insights for businesses, governments, and NGOs seeking to align their operations with Sustainable Development Goal 9 while driving sustainable economic growth and social prosperity.

Evidence-based strategies for Industry, Innovation, and infrastructure designed for organizational leadership and impact. This whitepaper provides actionable insights for businesses, governments, and NGOs seeking to align their operations with Sustainable Development Goal 9 while driving sustainable economic growth and social prosperity.

I declare the ownership of this thesis as my original research which has not been presented and/or duplicated elsewhere except for the sections that have since been published in online Journals as a standard academic requirement. I take full responsibility of any deficiencies which may be due to errors of omission and commission in the study.

This essay critically examines the consequences of the evolving role of innovation in contemporary societies, where it functions as both a normative imperative, an economic driver, and a policy blueprint for addressing global challenges. Framed through discourses of competitiveness, sovereignty, and resilience, innovation is increasingly pursued as an existential necessity. Drawing on insights from Science and Technology Studies and empirical material from the ERC project Innovation Residues (Felt, 2021a), the essay argues for reading innovation in reverse-not through its promises and envisioned futures, but through the material, infrastructural, and epistemic residues it leaves behind and collateral futures they create. These long-lasting traces, often rendered invisible, offer an alternative vantage point that challenges linear narratives of innovation-driven progress and invites more critical assessments of an innovation's value and impact. It interrogates the limitations of existing responsible innovation frameworks, particularly their relatively narrowly framed focus on one-time, early-stage, and input-centric interventions, and advocates a conceptual shift toward spatiotemporal geographies of response-ability. Stressing the need to develop "arts of noticing" innovation's many residues, the essay outlines an expanded concept of responsible innovation that is more attentive to what endures, accumulates, and is often neglected. It proposes a more reflexive, situated, and care-oriented approach to responsibility - one attuned to innovation's long-term impacts and uneven futures.

Several parts of the work have formed the subject of presentations at a number of international conferences, too numerous to list, which were extremely useful in confirming or correcting the directions taken. These subjects were also discussed in a variety of seminars, hosted by the excellent research unit Sens, éthique et société (Meaning, Ethics and Society; CERSES,

The development of population genetic theory related to use of translocations and other underdominance mechanisms to suppress pest populations or change their characteristics started more than seven decades ago . Under the best of circumstances, these approaches were expected to require release of large numbers of genetically manipulated individuals, and would have only localized impacts. Despite major efforts, early empirical attempts to use these approaches

In an era of rapid technological advancements and interdisciplinary demands, Computational Philosophy offers a transformative approach to reimagining education. This study explores its integration into pedagogy, emphasizing its potential to enhance active methodologies, promote sustainability education, and incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) tools. By leveraging computational reasoning, logic programming, and AI-driven applications, educators can foster critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and ethical awareness. Practical applications include simulations of ethical dilemmas, AI-powered text analysis, and computational models for resource management and environmental decision-making. Computational Philosophy bridges philosophy, computer science, and sustainability, expanding pedagogical foundations and promoting collaboration across disciplines. This study reflects on its theoretical and practical contributions, addressing societal and environmental challenges to prepare learners for an interconnected world. It highlights the importance of integrating Computational Philosophy into educational innovation, equipping students with the skills to navigate ethical and technological complexities.

Decision theory has been long applied to project management for risk and uncertainty reduction. Among the foundations, the manager is considered following axioms describing his rationality the most prominent ones being transitivity and independence. The order in preferences is not supposed be reversed yet unknowns events of nature, seen as exogenous, may perturb our understanding of the given situation and may require designing new decisions going against decision theories, hence increasing uncertainty. In this paper we show that in an innovation project management, traditional decision making is not able to grasp expansion and generativity phenomena as a manager senses the unknown and endogenises it. To highlight this phenomenon we use Bayesian Nets with Wald's foundations to sense the reordering preferences in an industrial case and the benefits of designing one's playground and being intransitive. The purpose to contribute to the idea theories studying generative processe...

The new logic of financing innovation: from uncertainty reduction to shaping the unknown Handbooks in finance, as well as literature reviews, recall that financing innovation and financing productivity investment differ in their level of uncertainty. 1 Students learn that financing production investment requires a positive net present value (NPV), whereas financing innovation requires taking into account multiple uncertainties by computing expected NPV. Models of decision-making in uncertainty helped to compute the value of reducing uncertainty. 2 This approach is considered the best way to value investment in research and development (R&D)-R&D being considered an activity to reduce uncertainty. 3 In this time of "disruptive innovation" in the context of multiple socioeconomic and technological changes-such as energy transition, aging, and digitalization-it is tempting to consider that innovation dynamics tend to be characterized by an increase in uncertainty. Investments ...

Although the world's oceans play a critical role in human wellbeing, they have not been a primary focus of the sustainable HCI (SHCI) community to date. In this paper, we present a scoping review to show how concerns with the oceans are threaded throughout the broader SHCI literature and to fnd new research opportunities. We identify several themes that could beneft from focused SHCI research, including marine food sources, culture and coastal communities, ocean conservation, and marine climate change impacts and adaptation strategies. Finally, we discuss opportunities for further work on marine human-natural systems research in SHCI and interdisciplinary collaboration with marine science and coastal communities. • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI).

This study develops a comparative, sociotechnical design perspective for interdisciplinary teams of social scientists and computer scientists. Sociotechnical design refers to identifying both technical and governance challenges and to understanding the ways in which the two types of problems affect and define each other. Approaching design as an open-ended, iterative process, the study develops a triple comparative perspective to problem finding and solutions: across two types of technological systems (the smart grid and connected and automated vehicles), three areas of societal implication and values (safety, equity, and privacy), and two continents (North America and Europe with a focus on the U.S. and Germany). The study then describes the implementation in an international collaboration of research and teaching. The collaborative experience and comparative research provide insights into the salience of the values across technological systems, portability of solutions across technological systems, and potential for policy harmonization across countries.

In many Western countries over the last 35 years, the quest for more scientific governance on crucial technological issues led to a broadening of the political world's sphere of competences. Indeed, various countries decided that dealing with global, invisible, irreversible and irreparable risks had to be handled by an appropriate tool of management of technological innovations. So the usefulness to institutionalize parliamentary Technology Assessment (PTA) offices emerged. Nowadays, PTA is an instrument particularly suitable to study the new shape of science and sometimes called "a new industrial revolution". We will raise some research questions like: how different are current TA practices as compared to former ones? Are there new regimes emerging? Given the current technological convergence, how complicated would it be to deal with NBIC technologies if we missed the point with biotechnology alone? How suitable is PTA to engage in such interdisciplinary issues? Are we assisting the emergence of a third PTA generation around the growing role of the STS community? How does this scientific community dialogue with the historians of science who analyzed the earlier industrial revolutions?

Within the overall evolution of the EU policies on RTD, RRI comes as a novel approach, which advances the principles of new governance and good governance in the realm of EU-funded research and innovation. As we will see in this section, it is instrumental not only in bridging the gap between science and society by advancing the "With and For" mode of cooperation, but also in promoting a research culture which aims to expand researchers' commitments and responsibilities beyond the laboratory and to the broader societal context. Below we will see that it is used as a means of promoting more adequate temporal management of research and innovation, integration of societal needs and desires by pursuing "by-design" policies, achieving efficiency and minimizing transaction costs as to the knowledge-creation process, advancing soft-law regulatory instruments in the spirit of the new governance approach, and engaging the business community with responsible behavior. At the same time, it is contributory to the establishment of a new research culture that is oriented towards addressing societal challenges, using new epistemological configurations (through interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity) and pursuing impact and relevance rather than "the objective and ultimate truth". The first official recognition of these many aspects of the expediency of responsibilization can be found in the words of Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, a former European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, back in 2012:

EU climate policy relies heavily on its emissions trading scheme (ETS) that covers 45% of the overall emissions. However, so far the EU ETS has not been effective in stimulating emissions reductions. Political struggles between EU member states (MS) and between different levels of governance have led to an implementation that differs from theoretical optimality. This report assesses the political feasibility of EU ETS reform proposals in different MS Germany, Poland, and the UK – and at EU-level. It assumes that the preferences of relevant stakeholders, their power constellations and the institutional setting determine the political feasibility. Interviews with relevant stakeholders revealed a general acceptance of the ETS as cornerstone of the EU climate policy. While institutions and beliefs appeared not to influence specific positions, perceptions and motivations, power constellations, and contextual factors seem to explain why stakeholders exhibit distinct positions across case ...

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) has been the preferred idiom for interrogating the social, ethical and political dimensions of science, technology and innovation for roughly a decade. The uptake of RRI into prominent policy organisations has resulted in a proliferation of policy frameworks as policy makers have attempted to articulate what it means for them to enact RRI. Here, we draw on our experience developing an RRI framework in the ERA Cofund on Biotechnology. We discuss three ways that treating RRI as a form of knowledge production has allowed us to engage with the institutional dimensions of science: as research within scientific projects; as administrative knowledge; and as methodological knowledge. We argue that Science and Technology Studies' concern with knowledge making offers a valuable route to approach RRI within research funding organisations, and reflect on how this approach might be developed in the next European Commission Framework Programme.

The rapid process of digital transformation and servitization experienced on a global scale in recent decades, further accelerated by the pandemic crisis, has radically altered the life experience of societies, with technological innovations leading to the emergence of new ethical and legal challenges. The issue of digital literacy and the acquisition of basic skills for responsible use of the internet has become one of the most urgent prerogatives in international government programs to address psychosocial phenomena such as those related to online grooming, cyberbullying, cybersuicide, cyber racing, or online scam- ming. The proposed work introduces the use of participatory game design as an empowerment tool for young students. The case study of the NetWalking project, developed by an interdisciplinary team of practitioners and researchers in several secondary schools in the city of Palermo (Italy), describes the experimentation of co-design activities of an edugame with a conversational interface (chatbot), which exploits the logic of nonlinear storytelling to actively engage students in playful learning activities, contributing to the development of hard skills (STEM) and soft skills (self-assessment, teamwork and information management).

Universities' increasing applications of science and technology to address a wide array of societal problems may serve to thwart democratic engagement strategies. For emerging technologies, such challenges are particularly salient, as knowledge is incomplete and application and impact are uncertain or contested. Insights from science and technology studies (STS) are incorporated to examine the challenges that emerging technologies present to public engagement. Four distinct case summaries of public engagement in the emerging fields of nanotechnology and bioenergy are presented to demonstrate how the emergent character of the technology can stifle engagement. Specifically, the article explores issues related to emerging technologies and (1) defining and engaging with publics, (2) experiential variability among publics, and (3) frame contests. The goal is to sensitize engagement scholars and practitioners to these challenges as a way to minimize obstacles or tensions that may do harm rather than bolster meaningful and democratic engagement processes.

This paper critically examines the social situation where AI is misunderstood as an "omnipotent tool" or "magical entity" from an ethical perspective. By applying the Kübler-Ross (1969) emotional model, we structure the stages of "cognitive transformation" that users experience when confronting AI. Furthermore, we discuss the implementation possibilities of an "ethical dialogue mode" as an educational function and propose the social implementation of lifelong learning UX through AI. Using five academic papers and practical application examples as evidence, we explore the nature of the "responsibility community" formed by AI, users, and society.

Artificial intelligence (AI) ethics is undergoing a practical shift towards putting principles into design practices in developing responsible AI. While this practical turn is essential, this paper highlights its potential risk of overly focusing on addressing issues at the level of individual artifacts, which can neglect more profound structural challenges and the need for significant systemic change. Such oversight makes AI ethics lose its strength in addressing some hidden, longterm harms within broader contexts. In this paper, we propose that the reflection on structural issues should be an integral part of AI ethics. To achieve this, we develop a multi-level framework to analyze socio-ethical issues of AI at both the artifact and broader structural levels. This framework can serve as a potentially transformative approach to uncover some unspoken assumptions in current AI ethics discourses and expose some blind spots in AI guidelines, policies, and regulations. Our paper paves the way to develop a practical approach that can effectively integrate this multi-level framework into real-world AI design and policymaking, ultimately bringing about transformative change.

This manifesto is the early extract of a longer essay currently undergoing final editorial review.
I chose to share it publicly to mark a core intuition: our everyday ethics already shape artificial education.

The full version will be released soon.
Nicoletta Iacobacci – Nice, May 2025

This commentary examines the ethical challenges posed by rapid innovation in digital health technologies. It critiques the overwhelming complexity of current governance frameworks, which often hinder innovation and erode patient trust. A principle-based model, centered on autonomy, justice, and beneficence, is proposed as a clearer alternative. By integrating broader ethical theories and practical strategies like consent standardization and bias audits, it offers a path toward trustworthy and effective oversight. The paper advocates for interdisciplinary collaboration to build an inclusive and ethically grounded digital health ecosystem.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming organizations by driving efficiency and innovation. However, its rapid adoption also brings ethical, regulatory, and governance challenges. This paper presents the AI-C2C (conscious to conscience) governance framework-a practical, phased model designed to help organizations navigate ethical AI integration. The framework consists of three stages: AI-conscious adoption, AI + human intelligence (HI) collaboration, and AI-conscience governance. It evolves with AI maturity, focusing on transparency, accountability, and role-based oversight. The framework is built on insights from expert interviews, sector case studies (IBM, AstraZeneca, Mastercard), and a thorough literature review. It outlines key roles, including the Chief AI Officer, the creation of AI ethics committees, and the use of Explainable AI (XAI). Additionally, the framework proposes seven key performance indicators to assess ethical compliance, transparency, workforce readiness, and regulatory alignment. This paper provides a clear roadmap for organizations to adopt AI responsibly, foster stakeholder trust, and create long-term value through ethical innovation.

Durant 15 mesos, el Centre de Recerca per a l'Educacio Cientifica i Matematica (CRECIM) i el Parc Cientific de Barcelona (PCB) han coordinat un projecte per avaluar l'impacte en el foment de cultura cientifica i interes per les ciencies d'uns tallers experimentals destinats a alumnat d'educacio secundaria duts a terme pel PCB. Aquest projecte conjunt ha culminat en l'elaboracio, per part del CRECIM, d'una guia de recomanacions pel disseny, implementacio i avaluacio de tallers experimentals de comunicacio i educacio cientifica.

User and citizen participation in the form of micro-actions scripted by digital systems has become indispensable to the functioning of government and society. In this article, we introduce the concept of 'infrastructural participation' to evaluate this phenomenon and investigate empirical instances of it in four topical areas: automated vehicles, digital education, citizen science and data protection. We formulate four societal challenges arising from infrastructural participation: 1) the resourcification of engagement, whereby digital participation becomes a mechanism for extracting people's data, work and attention to serve as resources for value generation by industry and state, 2) growing infrastructural dependency of the public sector on the private sector, 3) the 'infra-structuring' of persons-i.e. asymmetric, interactive categorisation-by digital technology, and 4) knowledge deficits and power asymmetries. We also identify an alternative form of infrastructural participation that has potential to empower social actors and strengthen relations between innovation and society, namely 'epistemic participation' by non-experts in governance, innovation and research. To conclude, we call for the development of society-centric approaches to digital participation to address the above challenges and realise potential benefits.

This work presents a novel approach RRI supported by data science to measure and evaluate trust during the development of the innovative technology “TeSLA“. The EU‐funded Adaptive Trust‐based e‐Assessment System for Learning (TeSLA) (http://tesla-project.eu) was developed to check student authentication and authorship through a combination of various instruments, such as: facial recognition, voice recognition, keystroke analysis, anti‐plagiarism and forensic analysis. Through mixed methods, three case-studies analysed small, medium and large data sets co-produced at the beginning, during and at the end of the TeSLA project in seven Institutions from 6 European countries. The set of studies revealed that the RRI with data science approach was vital to examine the perceptions and needs of distinctive users as well to evaluate and increase trust of the European TeSLA system.

Aquest estudi posa a debat tant els nivells com les formes de participació dels estudiants en el funcionament de la universitat amb la finalitat d'aprofundir en els models i les dinàmiques que afavoreixen la participació dels estudiants. Parteix de l'estudi del cas de la Universitat de ...

This paper examines the communication on nanotechnology in Brazilian media associated to the interests and values of different social groups, and explores which kind of communication models they use and which kind of contents they privilege. Three different media were analysed: the science features of the broadcast TV show Bom Dia Brasil ("Good Morning Brazil"); the science column of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper; and a non-random sample of Nanotecnologia do Avesso ("Nanotechnology Inside Out"), a chat show on web TV. The timeframe was established between 2008 and 2010, a period that follows the four best-financed years of Brazilian nanotechnology policy, after the launching of a national program in 2004. The methodological approach was quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The study concluded that communication of nanotechnology in Brazilian media is characterized by tensions and polarisations. On the one hand, the conventional media support the stabilisation of nanotechnology and emphasise its potential for innovation with discourses based on linear models. On the other hand, the alternative media expose the instability of nanotechnology, accentuate its risks with dystopic discourses and highlight the need for the application of the precautionary principle and the establishment of regulations.

Synthetic gene drives could provide new solutions to a range of old problems such as controlling vector-borne diseases, agricultural pests and invasive species. In this paper, we outline methods to identify hazards and detect potentially adverse ecological outcomes at the individual (genotype, phenotype), population, community and ecosystem level, when progressing Gene Drive Modified Organisms through a phased test and release pathway. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of checklists and structured hazard analysis techniques, identify methods to help meet some of the challenges of detecting adverse ecological outcomes in experiments and confined field trials, and discuss ways to improve the efficiency and statistical rigour of post-release monitoring strategies.

The adoption of solar PV in telecom towers is considered as a sustainable innovation in powering the towers. Such adoption involves different actors who hold different tasks and responsibilities. However, the indication that comes up among the actors involved is that if and when a disaster occurs (e.g. telecom systems collapse) due to the failure in the operation and management of solar PV after its installation, they will most likely be prone to finger-pointing at each other. In such situation, the questions arise: how to locate the accountability, who should be accountable to whom and for what and how to proportionally distribute the accountability? Through a case study in Indonesia, this paper discusses and analyses how to address such issue by undertaking Stakeholder and Impact Analyses and analysis of five dimensions of Responsible Innovation namely: anticipation, reflexivity, deliberation, responsiveness and participation. Our analysis suggests that there is a need of an innov...

The concept of mutual responsiveness is currently based on little empirical data in the literature of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). This paper explores RRI's idea of mutual responsiveness in the light of recent RRI case studies on private sector research and development (R&D). In RRI, responsible innovation is understood as a joint endeavour of innovators and societal stakeholders, who become mutually responsive to each other in defining the 'right impacts' of the innovation in society, and in steering the innovation towards realising those impacts. Yet, the case studies identified several reasons for why the idea of mutual responsiveness does not always appear feasible or desirable in actual R&D situations. Inspired by the discrepancies between theory and practice, we suggest three further elaborations for the concept of responsiveness in RRI. Process-responsiveness is suggested for identifying situations that require stakeholder involvement specifically during R&D. Product-responsiveness is suggested for mobilising the potential of innovation products to be adaptable according to diverse stakeholder needs. Presponsiveness is suggested as responsiveness towards stakeholders that are not (yet) reachable at a given time of R&D. Our aim is to contribute to a more tangible understanding of responsiveness in RRI, and suggest directions for further analysis in upcoming RRI case studies.

In European science and technology policy, various styles have been developed and institutionalised to govern the ethical challenges of science and technology innovations. In this paper, we give an account of the most dominant styles of the past 30 years, particularly in Europe, seeking to show their specific merits and problems. We focus on three styles of governance: a technocratic style, an applied ethics style, and a public participation style. We discuss their merits and deficits, and use this analysis to assess the potential of the recently established governance approach of 'Responsible Research and Innovation' (RRI). Based on this analysis, we reflect on the current shaping of RRI in terms of 'doing governance'.

Two decades ago, in 1994, in the context of the 4 th EU Framework Programme, ELSA was introduced as a label for developing and funding research into the ethical, legal and social aspects of emerging sciences and technologies. Currently, particularly in the context of EU funding initiatives such as Horizon2020, a new label has been forged, namely Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). What is implied in this metonymy, this semantic shift? What is so new about RRI in comparison to ELSA? First of all, for both labels, the signifier (S) was introduced in a top-down manner, well before the concept that was signified by it (s) had acquired a clear and stable profile. In other words, the signifier preceded (and helped or helps to shape) the research strategies actually covered by these labels (the precedence of the signifier over the signified: S/s). Moreover, the newness of RRI does not reside in its interactive and anticipatory orientation, as is suggested by authors who introduced the term, but rather in its emphases on social-economic impacts (valorisation, employment and competitiveness).