Participants experimented various tools for becoming familiar with the RRI vision and shared ideas about their role as RRI ambassadors within EuroScitizens.
The goal of the RRI transversal subgroup is to ensure RRI awareness and implementation in EuroScitizen. Accordingly, the RRI sub-group organised a training workshop. The aim were two fold: for participants to gain knowledge about this important view of contemporary scientific culture; and to train selected representatives of the various WGs, which will act as RRI ambassadors in their WGs.
Thanks to the local support of the Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković” University of Belgrade and the Center for the Promotion of Science, this workshop took place in Belgrade from 27th to 28th February 2020. Motivated participants became familiar with the necessary knowledge and skills to become RRI ambassadors and developed plans and activities at the level of the Action and of the working groups.
Thanks to the virtual connection, participants that could not be physically present at the workshop because of the COVID-19 emergence, still gave their valuable contribution and shared ideas.
To achieve the workshop aims, we successfully combined theoretical and practical activities with effective co-construction methods. The workshop was met with high engagement and enthusiasm from participants. The main RRI pillars (ethics, gender equality, science governance, open-science, public engagement, and science education) as well as the history of the RRI culture development were explained by Tom Børsen. Lucia Martinelli presented her journey into the RRI, by linking her professional experience with some crucial issues concerning the relationship between Science and Society. From theory to practice, Uroš Savković led the “discussion card game”, originally developed by Felt et al. (2018). This is a card-based tool aimed at introducing the participants in the most relevant issues of RRI in life science research. Anna Beniermann and Roar Stokken presented the results of the pilot survey disseminated within the whole EuroScitizen Action before the Belgrade workshop. Using a “World cafe” format, Héloïse Dufour had the participants explore selected RRI tools that they could reuse and led them to develop plans that they will implement at the whole Action level. By identifying relevant stakeholders and linking them with specific WG goals, Tania Jenkins showed how RRI can be implemented within each WG, while Tom Børsen co-constructed a draft program for each WG to realize in the next WG meeting. Finally, a task list was created by all participants, who actively proposed ideas for the next RRI-sub WG activity .
The workshop was also a pleasant opportunity for interesting people to meet, share experiences about their work and enjoy a few evenings in Belgrade, thanks to the workshop local organizer Uroš.
All participants agreed that the workshop has resulted in a gain of knowledge on RRI, and at least 10 ambassadors volunteered to improve RRI implementation at the level of the Action and of their WGs. They will soon be featured on the EuroScitizen website.