TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrating science and society in European Framework Programmes
T2 - Trends in project-level solicitations
AU - Rodríguez, Hannot
AU - Fisher, Erik
AU - Schuurbiers, Daan
N1 - Funding Information:
Hannot Rodríguez's contribution is based on research supported by the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the B asque Government under a Postdoctoral Fellowship for the Improvement of Research Personnel in a Foreign Country (Ref. No.: BFI08.183; 2009–2010 2-year period). This research was primarily conducted at the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes (CSPO), and the Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS), both at Arizona State University. Erik Fisher's contribution is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award #0849101 and cooperative agreement #0531194. The authors would like to thank David Guston, participants at the “Science and Governance: Global and Comparative Perspectives” workshop at Arizona State University (April 2010) and the Science and Technology Policy Gordon Research Conference (August 2010), and an anonymous reviewer for helpful feedback and constructive criticism of earlier versions of this work. Any limitations and shortcomings of the work remain the responsibility of the authors.
PY - 2013/6
Y1 - 2013/6
N2 - As part of a larger trend across industrialized nations, European research policy discourse has placed increasing emphasis on socio-technical integration: the explicit incorporation of activities devoted to broader social aspects into scientific activities. In order to compare these high-level integration discourses against patterns at the level of resource allocation, we analyze nearly 2500 research solicitations from the three European Framework Programmes for R&D during the period 1998-2010. We identify four distinct types of integration (socio-ethical, stakeholder, socio-economic and industrial) that occur either as core or parallel components of R&D solicitations. Quantitative analysis reveals an overall trend towards increasing integration, with requests integrating industrial and socio-economic aspects substantially outnumbering those integrating socio-ethical and stakeholder aspects - by a 2 to 1 margin. Meanwhile, calls for socio-technical integration have become slightly more extensive (ranging across a broader range of research areas addressed), significantly more pervasive (shifting from the periphery to the core of R&D practices), and arguably less diverse (involving a wider variety of integration types) over time. The relative lack of attention to socio-ethical aspects and stakeholder participation in European research is particularly notable given that we focus on potentially controversial areas (life sciences, energy, and nanotechnology), which likely overemphasizes the prevalence of integration throughout the Framework Programmes.
AB - As part of a larger trend across industrialized nations, European research policy discourse has placed increasing emphasis on socio-technical integration: the explicit incorporation of activities devoted to broader social aspects into scientific activities. In order to compare these high-level integration discourses against patterns at the level of resource allocation, we analyze nearly 2500 research solicitations from the three European Framework Programmes for R&D during the period 1998-2010. We identify four distinct types of integration (socio-ethical, stakeholder, socio-economic and industrial) that occur either as core or parallel components of R&D solicitations. Quantitative analysis reveals an overall trend towards increasing integration, with requests integrating industrial and socio-economic aspects substantially outnumbering those integrating socio-ethical and stakeholder aspects - by a 2 to 1 margin. Meanwhile, calls for socio-technical integration have become slightly more extensive (ranging across a broader range of research areas addressed), significantly more pervasive (shifting from the periphery to the core of R&D practices), and arguably less diverse (involving a wider variety of integration types) over time. The relative lack of attention to socio-ethical aspects and stakeholder participation in European research is particularly notable given that we focus on potentially controversial areas (life sciences, energy, and nanotechnology), which likely overemphasizes the prevalence of integration throughout the Framework Programmes.
KW - ELSA (Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects)
KW - EU Framework Programmes
KW - Research solicitations
KW - Responsible innovation
KW - Socio-technical integration
KW - Stakeholder engagement
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U2 - 10.1016/j.respol.2013.02.006
DO - 10.1016/j.respol.2013.02.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84876861435
SN - 0048-7333
VL - 42
SP - 1126
EP - 1137
JO - Research Policy
JF - Research Policy
IS - 5
ER -