The first priority objective of STARBIOS2 is to profoundly embed the approach and practices of RRI in six research departments of bioscience of six institutions, all based in EC member states (Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Poland and the UK).

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This objective will be sought by activating structural change through the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a four-year RRI Action Plan (AP) in each involved department. The AP will be self-tailored: each of them will be conceived, designed and implemented by the institution involved and will take into account the institutional, social and cultural context where it will be carried out. It will include, in a coordinated way, five sets of actions, respectively addressing the RRI 5 keys.

The second specific objective is that of using the implementation of the AP as a basis for activating a learning process on RRI-oriented structural change. This learning process is a way for better understanding and capitalizing the main results emerging from the AP for communicating, disseminating the policy of the structural change for RRI and also for scaling up.

The outputs of the learning process will result in the development of a set of guidelines on RRI implementation, aimed at providing recommendations on how to deal with resistances and barriers to the implementation of RRI in research institutions.

The third specific objective of STARBIOS2 is to develop a RRI model for biomedical sciences. Intentionally, STARBIOS2 involves only institutions specialized in biomedical sciences. This choice derives from the recognition of this research sector as one of the most exposed to the risks of a loose connection between scientific research and society, and therefore one where RRI-oriented actions are needed the most.

In this framework, STARBIOS2 is envisioned as a unique opportunity to strengthen a critical analysis of contents, implications, critical aspects, possible strategies and future perspectives for RRI policies in biosciences. The model would provide the staff and leaders of Biosciences Departments and Divisions with further and better formalized orientations and practical knowledge about the key issues related to the implementation of RRI and how they can be encompassed.

It’s important to identify multiple RRI strategies tailored on each research sector as each disciplinary community is characterised by its own features, culture, languages, networks and associations, communication means and power dynamics.

STARBIOS 2 intends to use this tailored approach for bioscience research.

In the context of the EC policies, structural change refers to profound modifications of universities and research organisations and is characterised by 4 main features, irreversibility, comprehensiveness, inclusiveness and contextualisation.

New action models and values implemented in a group will progressively mobilises other groups, turning them into the new structure with those values.

The structural change activation model STARBIOS2 is based upon an iterative process.

This process describes the nature of the AP implementation phase that will require pro-activity, flexibility and capacity to react rapidly to unexpected situations in a context of high levels of uncertainty, innovation and social complexity.