News

Several of the invited speakers and panellists stressed at the RECIPES conference “Precaution for Responsible Innovation: New Options to Move Forward” (11 May 2022) that the topicality of the precautionary principle has increased in the past, e.g., due to the increasing transgression of planetary boundaries. They considered the principle to be even more important in the future.

The RECIPES team has developed a guidance for application of the precautionary principle in the EU and consulted various actors from science, business, policy-making and organized civil society for this purpose. The guidance advises on how to deal responsibly with uncertain risks in the development and implementation of technology in the EU. Target groups of this guidance are primarily EU policy makers, EU agencies, and EU policy support organisations and bodies that are concerned with risk regulation or the governance of science, technology and innovation.

The guidance on risk communication, which DIALOGIK created as part of the BMBF-funded project RiCoRT, is now available as an open access publication. The title of the guidance is "Risk communication for infection-protective behavior in a long-lasting pandemic. Guidance using the COVID-19-pandemic as an example". The document highlights that, in addition to knowledge, norms and values are important reference points for risk communication in the COVID-19-pandemic.

The precautionary principle works best in a double role: as a safeguard and legal principle and as a compass and policy principle. From a ‘responsible innovation’ perspective, the precautionary principle is essential to help ensure responsive, adaptive and inclusive management of innovation processes. These and other key messages of the EU-funded RECIPES project will be presented and discussed at the project’s final conference. The conference will be held on May, 11th, 2022 and will be organized in hybrid format (Brussels) by DIALOGIK.

What do citizens, decision-makers and stakeholder think about the operation of a green hydrogen plant in their community? DIALOGIK researchers investigated this topic in a representative survey and in stakeholder interviews in the southwestern German community of Grenzach-Wyhlen. The aim was to determine the level of awareness and knowledge of both the population and representatives from politics and administration, business and civil society about (green) hydrogen and its applications.

Working from home did not play a special role in Germany until the outbreak of the Corona pandemic. This changed strikingly in the course of the pandemic. In this context, DIALOGIK conducted a study on the question: can home-office contribute to climate protection? The report is based on the results of a literature review and an expert workshop organized by DIALOGIK. On the one hand, it shows that there are good reasons to expect home-office to have a positive impact on climate protection, especially in the areas of mobility and heating.

On February 22 and 23, the RECIPES project has held the European Policy Workshop “Precaution for responsible innovation”. The purpose of the 2-day-workshop (online) was to review a pre-final version of the RECIPES guidance on how to ensure the ability of the precautionary principle to drive responsible innovation. The workshop brought together 25 invited experts from EU and national policy-making institutions, European and national agencies, EU policy support organizations and bodies, scholars of science and technology governance, and similar experts.

The precautionary principle works best in a double role: as a safeguard and legal principle and as a compass. From a ‘responsible innovation’ perspective, the precautionary principle is essential to help ensure responsive, adaptive and inclusive management of innovation processes. These and other key messages of the EU-funded RECIPES project will be presented and discussed at the project’s final conference. The conference will be held on May, 11th, 2022 and will be organized in hybrid format (Brussels) by DIALOGIK.

The Project BioWaWi is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Phase 2 of the project has started in November 2021. DIALOGIK is responsible for stakeholder communication and citizen science.

The pandemic requires to redesign social interaction in a way that protects against infection. Orientation to new social norms that stipulate adherence to protective measures gain in importance in this situation. In particular, social norms of one's own reference group have a significant influence on one's own behavior.

DIALOGIK starts the new year with a new appointment in the management. We are very pleased to announce that our long-time and experienced colleague Dr. Rainer Kuhn will join DIALOGIK as Scientific Director and authorized signatory as of 01.01.2022 and will soon become part of the management of DIALOGIK as co-partner. Dr. Marion Dreyer will hand over the management as of 31.12.2021 and will step down as shareholder in order to pursue new fields of activity. She will continue to work for DIALOGIK as project manager.

The Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) organised a roundtable on the project "Reconciling Science, Innovation and Precaution through the Engagement of Stakeholders" (RECIPES) at its annual conference "Risk Science and the Policy Interface" on 8 December 2021. Dr Marion Dreyer, together with colleagues from the RECIPES project, presented interim results and further planning for the EU-funded research project on precaution and innovation.

What are the underlying reasons for favoring or rejecting nuclear energy? How can we explain this variety of perceptions? What is the specific role of perceived risks and benefits? How much weight do these factors have in shaping public opinions? Answers to these questions will be provided by the paper “Risky or Beneficial? Exploring Perceptions of Nuclear Energy over Time in a Cross-Country Perspective” that compares citizen attitudes to nuclear power in seven European countries and the United States. The paper is part of the recently published volume “Engaging the Atom.

“Precaution and Innovation: Stakeholder Perspectives on the Future Application of the Precautionary Principle” is the title of the new RECIPES policy brief, edited by DIALOGIK. The stakeholder perspectives that the policy brief presents were collected in a year-long stakeholder engagement process, organized by RECIPES partner The Danish Board of Technology Foundation.

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approaches share the idea that societal actors, including citizens, need to work together during the research and innovation process in order to better align both the process and its outcomes with society's values, needs and expectations. The paper addresses the question of what motivates or prevents citizens from participating in research dialogue processes. The paper shows that:

What role does ideological trust in institutions such as the state play in the emergence of civil society "vigilance" and the dynamics of the (de)politicization of nuclear debates? This paper explores this question by comparing four countries with different trust profiles: Finland as a “high trust society”, France and Spain as “societies of mistrust”, and Germany as an intermediate case. The result shows that strong ideological trust in the state hindered the development of mistrustful counter-expertise in Finland but created a basis for its emergence in France and Germany.

Using two case studies as examples, the handout describes ways, methods and results of cooperative innovation processes (co-creation) with target groups for which specific forms of participation are necessary from a practical and content-related perspective. These are, on the one hand, low-income families and, on the other hand, blind people and people with limited vision. The report highlights the potential for innovation through inclusive co-creation, which opens up new market opportunities for companies through products and solutions designed to meet special needs of these people.

The development and dissemination of new digital hardware and applications has been taking place at enormous speed for decades. However, what about resource efficiency and sustainability of innovations in the field of information technology and computing centers? This question is at the heart of the ENRICH research project, which investigates the impact of digitization on energy and resource consumption in German State of Baden-Württemberg.

The LIV_IN project invites interested people from all sectors to the following webinar in May:

How can blind and visually impaired people co-create innovations?

Webinar on May, 25th 2021, 4pm CEST

Two case studies will be used to discuss how co-creation between experts and citizens works and why it is worth considering inclusive innovations with blind and visually impaired people. In addition, the “7 practical points” for facilitating a workshop with this specific target group will be presented.

How can companies and citizens work together to develop innovations? How can they capture and consider each other' s needs and requirements for new technologies? The Co-Creation Toolkit uses the experience gained in 19 industry-citizen workshops in the LIV_IN project and provides general recommendations for involving users in a commercial Research & Development-Project. It is addressed to all those who are interested in involving laypersons in order to jointly design products and services in a more customer-friendly way and in the sense of RRI.