Abstract
Responsible research and innovation (RRI) approaches that have emerged in the past ten years point to the importance of engaging the public in dialogues about research. The different variants of RRI share the notion that societal actors, including citizens, need to work together – that is, engage in two-way communication during the research and innovation process – in order to better align both the process and its outcomes with the values, needs and expectations of society. Yet, sponsors and organizers of dialogues about research often face difficulties in recruiting sufficient numbers of participants or ensuring a sufficient level of diversity of participants. This paper asks what motivates or hinders individual citizens as members of the broader public to participate in such dialogues. It presents empirical findings of the European Union-funded project Promoting Societal Engagement Under the Terms of RRI (PROSO), which aimed to foster public engagement with research for RRI. PROSO used a quasi-experimental, qualitative approach directly involving citizens to address this question. The core of the innovative methodology were focus group discussions with European citizens about hypothetical opportunities to take part in dialogues about research. Three hypothetical scenarios of different dialogue formats (varied by whether they seek to inform the participants, consult or enable deeper collaboration on a scientific issue) were used as stimuli to explore the participants’ willingness (motivations and perceived barriers) to engage with scientific research. Our findings show a preference towards dialogue formats that give citizens a more active role and a greater say in research policy or research funding. They further suggest that those who seek to broaden citizen participation in dialogues about research should consider the role of relevance, impact, trust, legitimacy, knowledge, and time and resources as factors that can motivate or discourage citizens to take part. Based on our findings, we discuss possibilities to promote citizen participation in dialogues about research as part of putting RRI into practice.
Highlights
Key messages European approaches of responsible research and innovation (RRI) postulate that societal actors, including citizens, play a role in research and innovation; those who invite citizens to engage through dialogues with research, often face difficulties in recruiting sufficient numbers of citizens
There is a widespread consensus in the literature that public engagement with research under responsible research and innovation (RRI) approaches extends beyond the unidirectional provision of research results from science to society
The six barriers for citizens to engage in dialogues about research have relevance across all countries in which the citizen panel meetings took place, even though the strength of each barrier may vary between countries
Summary
We present the main empirical findings across the national citizen panel meetings. (1) designing a dialogue process that systematically combines argumentative exchange with provision of scientific-technical information, and asking the participants to select or co-select the scientific experts (2) integrating face-to-face dialogue formats with online engagement tools (3) clearly indicating how the dialogue process links to and informs policymaking or decision-making processes, or to point out other concrete ways in which impact can be expected (4) compensating the citizens for the direct costs incurred by participation (5) ensuring full transparency at the point of recruitment in regard to these design aspects, and more generally in regard to the roles and responsibilities of all actors involved, including the concrete contributions that the citizens are expected to make and what makes them valuable contributors (6) avoiding framings that may create the impression that citizens are asked ‘to speak for society’; engagement in a joint production of reflected views ‘from within society’ could be an alternative framing. In order to develop a culture for public engagement with research, policymakers and governmental agencies could encourage changes in how scientific reputation is measured, and commit to dialogues about research through national strategies or guidelines
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