Ulrike BECHTOLD, Institute for Technology Assessment of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
Daniela FUCHS, Institute for Technology Assessment of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
The project GoNano[1] has developed and applied a co-reation approach to actively involve citizens, stakeholders, and experts to develop concrete nanotechnology product suggestions in the three areas health, energy and food. Core element of this co-creation process was that the participants were part of an iterative process to facilitate uncovering societal needs and values. And aside to the more concrete outcomes the project elaborated three white papers[2], seven policy briefs[3] and one industry brief to identify the main recommendations (white papers) and to communicate them to the responsible authorities (policy and industry briefs) in an easily accessible way. The recommendations serve for governance of research and innovation in nanotechnology to foster increased responsiveness to societal needs and values. To effectively do so, the three white papers are about 1) Responsiveness in practice: aligning nanotechnology research and innovation with societal need, 2) Co-creation in practice: enabling multi-stakeholder collaboration in nanotechnology research and innovation and 3) The importance of gender and diversity in nanotechnology Research and Innovation. The policy briefs cover very practical aspects on how to organise co-creation and what to consider before doing so. But they also touch upon more theoretical reflections like the importance to distinguish the ultimate goal of co-reation which can be either democratisation of technology or creating concrete added value along a concreter technology development pathway.
In this contribution the authors will not only critically reflect on co-creation as a tool to successfully integrate societal values into RTD and create value but also they aim to ask, in what ways the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced the spread and communication of the recommendations and hence inhibited one of the projects goal: to create ownership of the results (e.g. recommendations) by those involved and by the targeted addressees.
[1] http://gonano-project.eu/about-gonano/
[2] http://gonano-project.eu/d5-3-collection-of-the-gonano-white-papers/
[3] http://gonano-project.eu/gonano-policy-briefs/
Document 1 : Document 1