Developing and implementing an Ethics Governance System for grounding good practices in RRI in HEFRCs

The Objective of Ethna System is to develop and implement an Ethics Governance System for grounding good practices in RRI (ETHNA System) in Higher Education, Funding and Research Centres (HEFRCs). The Project implements and validates a new formal organizational structure within the management structure in 6 different HERCs of the consortium from 6 countries and 3 types of contexts: 2 universities, 2 funding research centres and 2 technological parks in ES, NO, EE, BG, AT and PT.
The ETHNA System is composed by an Ethna office (integrity office) and 4 tools and work methodologies for RRI (ethical code, ethics committee, ethical hotline and process indicators to report) that implies institutional changes to respond to ethical challenges that HEFRCs are facing in EU context nowadays in its R&I activities. The institutional changes are sustainable beyond the lifetime of the project funding because they will be implemented and institutionalised in the HEFRCs management structures throughout the Ethna office. A Sustainability Plan will be developed to maximise the impact during 5 years after the end of the project.
Therefore, the development of the project involves a mutual learning among the consortium partners which have different levels of expertise and knowledge in the five dimensions of RRI (research ethics and integrity, gender equality, open science, citizen’s engagement). The consortium contributes to 22 MoRRI indicators and 7 SDG goals (16 targets). GOV2 and GOV3 indicators are particularly focused with KPI project indicators.
The process to define ETHNA System is based on Quadruple Helix Mode (QHM) where the involvement of all stakeholders in R&I and the implementation of the ETHNA System and its institutionalization require a sustainable engagement with citizens and society as a whole. Moreover, ETHNA System includes the evaluation of the activities in order to communicate with transparency and publicity its achievements and points of improvement.

ZSI leads the work package on Designing protocol of the Ethical Office and tools of the ETHNA System for its implementation. This work package provides building blocks of the ETHNA System and constitutes the core guiding principles for institutional change in the RRI governance system. These are elaborated based on an extensive multi-stakeholder consultation approach.

Team:

• M.A. Gorazd A. Weiss (project leader)
• Magª. Pamela Bartar, MAS
• DI Dietmar Lampert
• Magª. Andrea Christiane Mayr
• M.A. Gábor Szüdi, PhD

Section: Research Policy & Development

Partners:

• Applied Research and Communications Fund
• Archimedes Foundation
• BIOCOM
• European Network of Research Ethics Committees - EUREC
• Fonden Teknologirådet
• Fundacion Espanola para la Ciencia y la Tecnologia
• INSTITUTO DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DE NOVAS TECNOLOGIAS-ASSOCIACAO
• Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet
• Universitat Jaume i de Castellon

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• News: How to integrate RRI into large research organisations?
• News: ETHNA project: Towards more responsible research & innovation #RRI

Tags: ethics, gender, higher education, RRI