GENERAL ARTICLES

We have been implementing structural change towards Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) for 4 years on 4 continents. Our STARBIOS2 journey is now coming to an end, but we will continue practicing RRI and carrying on the STARBIOS2 legacy. Our final event was a great opportunity to showcase the challenges for RRI mainstreaming in bioscience, and our success stories of overcoming those challenges and succeeding to enable structural change at European bioscience research institutions, inspiring similar changes in the US, South Africa & Brazil. In this final newsletter, we want to let you know where to download our guideline and that speaker presentations and video recordings from our final event are now available on our website and on YouTube. And finally, to share with you our stories, and thank you for these 4 years together. RRI success stories RRI ACTION ON SOCIETAL ENGAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ROME – TOR VERGATA At University of Rome – Tor Vergata, a small team of bioscience researchers made structural change happen. How did they manage to do so? This is their story…  [READ MORE] RRI ACTION ON GENDER AT UNIVERSITY OF GDANSK Implementing gender focused activities to obtain structural changes on institution-wide level at University of Gdansk! Find out what they learned, and about the united efforts of a complex project team [READ MORE] RRI ACTION ON OPEN ACCESS AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PRIMORSKA What does RRI look like at the youngest public university in Slovenia? And more specifically, in …

The University of Rome – Tor Vergata (UNITOV) not only coordinated the STARBIOS2 project, they also implemented structural change in a large organisation with already established and agreed on practices. Still, they managed to accomplish several important changes towards responsible research and innovation. This is their story… Main challenges The main challenges for our team were: Achieving structural change in a very large organisation with established and consolidated practices. Aligning RRI activities with many other similar, ongoing, and/or already present, activities carried out by different actors. Implementing the actions with a small team, mainly devoted to biosciences research work. Sharing the objectives and activities of interdisciplinary UNESCO chair with Italian and international stakeholders Strengthening scientific links with other research groups and different stakeholders. Focus on societal engagement The team carried out an Action Plan about all RRI keys. As for “societal engagement”, in particular, two aspects were focused on: The assessment and strengthening of interdisciplinary UNESCO chair in Biotechnology and Bioethics An integrated system for exchange with society.  The set of actions for these two aspects also included a strong component of the other RRI keys. The “Interdisciplinary Chair in Biotechnology and Bioethics” of the University of Rome – Tor Vergata is an example of Responsible Research and Innovation aimed at coping with some of the most important health and societal challenges of the contemporary world. The assessment of the Chair has been finalised to its consolidation and involvement of an increasing number of actors dedicated to the reinforcement of …

STARBIOS2 is a global project, spanning 4 years and 4 continents. Below you will find the lessons learned from the STARBIOS2 team at University of Maryland, Baltimore, in the US. You can also find their STARBIOS2 story among the ones told at our online final event. Main challenges Every 5 years, The University of Maryland (UMB) has an extensive process of Strategic Planning, and it embraces “Inclusivity” rather than “Gender Equity”. Consequently, emphasis on “Gender Equity” was avoided, and the action plans instead focus on “Inclusivity” ensures that people – irrespective of gender, race, or culture – are given equal opportunity. Another challenge was the hesitation of the UMB administration to share statistical information for fear that this work would create adverse publicity.  The multidisciplinary nature of the STARBIOS2 project also creates tension, and the question was raised whether a senior virologist was now studying “sociology” rather than “virology”. Focus on Public Engagement Public Engagement is valued highly by the UMB, and the university has an office of Community Engagement that provides educational programs, job training and health care for the underserved neighborhoods surrounding the University.  There are also several Global Programs on the campus that promote health delivery and health education all over the world. There are also programs promoting business development and technology transfer from University inventors to businesses outside the University.  The STARBIOS2 team analyzed these efforts (Local, Global, and Commercial) to find ways they could be improved. Overcoming obstacles To put initiatives into the UMB “Strategic …

Implementing responsible research and innovation (RRI) in bioscience research institutions requires different strategies depending on the context. In this blog post, the STARBIOS2 team at FIOCRUZ in Brazil share their lessons learned from participating in the project. You can also find their story on our YouTube channel, along other presentations from the STARBIOS2 final event. Main challenges At the beginning of the STARBIOS2 project, the term Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) was not yet widely adopted and disseminated at Fiocruz, but many common practices fit within the spirit of RRI to make science and technology (S&T) more responsive, reflective, inclusive, open to social demands and more socially responsible. Therefore, the main challenges were defining action plans to make and adjust already existing practices in Fiocruz more systematic and relevant to the institution.  Focus on Education Fiocruz is the main institution non-university on training and qualification of human resources for the Unified Health System (SUS) and for science and technology in Brazil. Thus, education is one of the pillars of Fiocruz and we have focused our main activities on this field, through courses, workshops for discuss RRI concepts and training for technology transfer and capacity building. Overcoming obstacles Since Fiocruz’s focus is to produce, disseminate and share knowledge and technologies aimed at the strengthening and consolidation of the Unified Health System (SUS) and contribute to the promotion of health and quality of life of the population, we had no problems in proposing measures to disseminate RRI concepts in the institution. Our …

For 4 years now, we have been transforming institutions to foster responsible research. We have been is promoting responsible research and innovation in bioscience, using action plans, a sustainable model and guidelines that aim to make research more relevant, inclusive and effective for citizens and businesses. We were able to recruit over 180 participants from 5 continents for our final event on May 29. Now, we are being highlighted as a recent success story in EU-funded research and innovation. Confirming that we have succeeded to make an impact in the direction of responsible research and innovation in research institutions in Europe. But also in the US, South Africa and Brazil. For those of you who are interested in learning more about the STARBIOS2 project, the video recordings of the final event are coming very soon. Until then, you can find more information on what we did and how in the STARBIOS2 guideline book, available for download on our publications page. Or by watching the recordings of our webinars from early 2020. If you want to know more about what made our RRI implementation in bioscience organisations successful, read the full blog post on the European Commission’s website.

Structural change towards responsible research and innovation looks different depending on institutions’ political, social and cultural context. This blog post tells the STARBIOS2 RRI story of our colleagues at University of Bremen. Want to learn more about what the STARBIOS2 project has been doing in the past 4 years and what we learned from implementing RRI in 6 European bioscience research institutions. Come to our virtual final event 29 May! MAIN CHALLENGES Our goal was to raise awareness and initiate structural change in regard to Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) at the Faculty of Biology andChemistry at the University of Bremen. The challenges we had to overcome: The development of a common shared RRI vision in awhole-institutional-approach. The activation of those affected (students, researchers, stakeholders) in a bottom-up – top-down process. The identification of supportive and hindering structures and coping with obstacles FOCUS ON SCIENCE EDUCATION We chose Science Education as an important trigger to attain the RRI issues Public Engagement, Gender, Ethics, and Open Access. Based on an inclusivecommunication model for biosciences we developed a series of reflective activities to encourage discussion and critically questions about what is responsible and conscientious practice within the scientific domain.The reflective activities about societal engagement, contextualization of research, open access publication, gender in research, and ethics in science communication were evaluated with different target groups (students, doctoral students, researchers). In addition, we developed a comprehensive educational model that formed the basis of RRI educational modules in cooperation with the Graduate School NanoCompetence, scientists …

“Covid-19 and Open Science” will be an opportunity to learn from and discuss Open Science approaches, methodologies and best practice used by STARBIOS2 partners involved in fighting the novel coronavirus and Covid-19. Join us on 29 May 2020, at 18:00 CEST! Directly following the STARBIOS2 final event on 29 May, we organise a special event on Covid-19 and Open Science. The Covid-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) has reinforced data sharing, communication and collaboration within international research communities. Challenging, in a positive way, the utilization of open science approaches and methodologies. Speakers include… The UNESCO chairs for Covid-19Ahmed Fahmi, UNESCO Title to be announcedEva Méndez, University Carlos III, Madrid Targets of T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in humans with COVID-19 disease and unexposed individualsAlessandro Sette, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, CA, USA University students partnership during Covid-19 epidemics in CameroonJules-Roger Kuiate, Evangelic University of Cameroon The Covid-19 Tor Vergata Joint LaboratoryVittorio Colizzi, professor of Immunology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, director of the UNESCO Chair of Biotechnology & Bioethics,Coordinator of the Tor Vergata Covid-19 Joint Lab Open Science is a new approach to the scientific process based on cooperative work and new ways of diffusing knowledge through digital technologies and collaborative tools. With the goal of making scientific research available to all. A goal that could be accomplished by publishing open scientific research, campaigning for open access, and making it easier to both publish and communicate knowledge and new findings. Finding ways of making research more transparent …

Within the scope of STARBIOS2, the Plant Biotechnology Information Centre at Agrobioinstitute in Sofia, Bulgaria organised the third national annual essay contest for young people. This year 234 students from Bulgarian secondary schools, high schools and universities answered the call. The 2020 edition topic was “Climate is changing! And me?”. Essays from 53 Bulgarian towns were submitted and Bulgarians studying in Italy, Spain, Cyprus and the Netherlands also participated and elaborated their thoughts on climate change. “What was most interesting was the students’ personal attitude to the problem. They showed readiness and enthusiasm not only to ‘think globally’ but to ‘act locally’ to improve the environment. Starting in their own homes, backyards, schools, towns, and counties. And more importantly, doing their best to convince their families and friends to join them in their efforts” says Dimitar Dijilanov, professor at Agrobioinstitute and lead of PBIC and the STARBIOS2 work in Bulgaria. The winner essays are already available for download. Unfortunately, the official award ceremony will have to be postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Bulgarians are currently in quarantine. But soon, the winners will be able to receive their proper congratulations and awards. “We are grateful to all students who submitted their essays, to their teachers, tutors and parents for this record breaking number of essays and their positive response,” says Dimitar Dijilanov.