Practicing Responsible Research and Innovation in a crowdsourcing project

Abstract

The paper discusses the operationalization of responsible research and innovation (RRI), drawing on empirical materials from a research project that explored ICT-enabled tools and methods for crowdsourcing in urban environmental research and decision-making. An integrated model for RRI is developed from prior studies, in which socially responsible crowdsourcing is described as an iterative and recursive process of inclusion, anticipation, reflexivity and responsiveness on the purpose, process, product and people components of the crowdsourcing project. The paper outlines four important aspects that influence the practice of RRI: time, interdisciplinary skills and capacities, design flexibility of ICT tools and strategic alliances between researchers and public officials. Theoretically, the paper contributes with an integrated conceptual model that further extends the already existing RRI framework.