Research Community

Supporting Novel Co-creation Initiatives (ORION task 3.5, D3.11 Report on the implementation of novel co-creation initiatives) sought to support making research funding and performing institutions more permeable to Responsible Research and Innovation principles by encouraging collaboration of Core and Associated ORION partners with stakeholders in the quadruple helix. This report summarises the learnings during the first two phases of this task: the design and dissemination of the funding call; and the evaluation and selection of successful proposals.

As part of the ORION project, four partners conducted a public dialogue to investigate public opinions on genome editing technology and its implications for biosciences research. The public dialogues took place late 2019 and early 2020 in four European countries: the UK, Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden. These dialogues have served as an instrument to support and encourage ORION overarching goal: embedding Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles in research funding and performing organisations (RFPOs).

New and Revised Approaches to Research Funding (ORION subtask 3.2.1) sought to integrate RRI principles in funding processes, co-creating funding calls with multiple stakeholders, thus ‘opening- up’ research funding. Research funding organisations that participated in this ORION task, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III in Spain and the South Moravian Centre for International Mobility (JCMM) in Czech Republic, organised and led workshops with multiple stakeholders. Their co-creation experiments resulted in two complementary approaches: The RRI Health Awards (ISCIII) and a funding call for undergraduate research projects to address local societal challenges (JCMM).

Two citizens science proposals were granted 50.000 EUR within the remit of ORION WP3 on open experiments to develop life sciences research projects involving public participants’ expertise. "Science that makes me move" (SMOVE) by scientists at MDC, Berlin, is an epidemiological study involving school students’ in assessing physical activity and sedentary behaviour in order to identify related lifestyle and environmental factors. Genigma by scientists at CRG, Barcelona, is a smartphone game for assembling 3D cancer genomes in a crowdsourced manner.

One of the objectives with ORION was to support making research funding and performing institutions more permeable to Responsible Research and Innovation principles by encouraging collaboration of ORION partners with stakeholders in the quadruple helix through co-creation approaches. Two projects have been supported; “Virtual Activity Co-Creation Initiative for Novel Engagement” (VACCINE), an online game to engage young members of the public with the science behind infections, immunity and vaccinations, and the project; “Melting Pot for ICT in Health Research” (MELTIC), a collaboration of small isolated communities in Europe to co-create new ideas for ICT in health research and the use of public spaces.

Nowadays, the prevailing trend in the science-society relationship is to engage with the broader public, which is beneficial for the public, scientific institutes, scientific findings, and the legitimacy of science as a whole. This article Open Science and the Science-Society Relationship published on Springer 24 June, 2019 provides a broad review of the rapidly growing research on Open Science and identifies the gaps in the current knowledge for future research. The review focuses on the science-society relationship, such that knowledge from this field is summarised and systematised. Insight into the most salient topics, including science communication, public engagement with science, public cognition of science, and challenges and potential unintended consequences connected to interactions with the public are examined.

A reality TV experiment, augmented reality app, smartphone game and citizen deliberation forum. These are just a few of the stakeholder engagement initiatives highlighted in the paper "Involving society in science" published in EMBO press (Volume 22, Issue 11, 4 November 2021). In this paper we discuss different levels of stakeholder engagement by way of example, presenting various activities organized by European research institutions. Based on these experiences, we propose ten reflection points that we believe should be considered by the institutions, the scientists, and the funding agencies to achieve meaningful and impactful stakeholder engagement.

In 2018, as a part of the ORION Open Science project, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, MDC, held pilot training workshops on Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation. The pilots were to form the basis of an ambitious schedule of workshops run during the ORION project as well as inform the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Open Science for the Life Sciences, that remains available after the end of ORION.

One key objective of the ORION project was to foster institutional changes in Open Science at research perfoming organisations, RFPOs, through co-creation experiments with multiple stakeholders, which can last beyond the ORION lifetime. The six participating RFPOs: Babraham Institute, CEITEC, CRG, MDC, ISCIII and JCMM have prepared tailored action plans to embed Open Science and RRI in their organisations. The plans have been elaborated engaging high management in the organisations to ensure institutional commitment and resources for their implementation. They focus on different dimensions of Open Science, depending on the institution's priorities – from Open Access to publications, Open Data, research integrity, EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) aspects, to stakeholder and public engagement, incorporating the lessons learnt in ORION.

Gamification can be an innovative and fun way to engage specific audiences in complex issues and spur interest in science. By playing the Genigma game you will help researchers at Centre for Genomic Regulation to discover genomic alterations in cancer cells. In Virus fighter you will discover more about the spread of viral outbreaks, the importance of vaccinations and learn how to make informed decisions. Game on!