Following the definition adopted by the European Commission, the responsible research and innovation is an approach that anticipates and assesses potential implications and societal expectations with regard to research and innovation, with the aim to foster the design of inclusive and sustainable research and innovation.
Methods and procedural aspects of RRI may include anticipation, reflection, inclusion, participation and responsiveness. These may be used to explain and study interactions amongst different concurrent industrial-research-business oriented policies by introducing innovative elements related to social, ethical and global awareness domains.
In practice, RRI could be implemented in all the innovation initiatives as a package that includes multi-actor and public engagement in research and innovation, enabling easier access to scientific results, the take up of gender and ethics in the research and innovation content and process, and formal and informal science education.