PRO-Ethics, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, just published its first policy brief. The PRO-Ethics project works with research and innovation funding organisations across Europe to test ethical ways to involve citizens and stakeholders in research and innovation processes.

To meet societal challenges and secure a sustainable and resilient future, large scale innovation and a drive for improvement are needed. Public participation gives researchers and innovators a better understanding of diverse social and societal needs when new solutions are being developed. However, such participation processes must be ethically sound and responsible to ensure research integrity and achieve unbiased, rigorous results. Preliminary results from PRO-Ethics emphasises the need for a common ethical foundation when involving citizens and stakeholders in innovation processes. PRO-Ethics´ ambition is to tackle the diversity of organisational contexts so that research funding organisations can benefit from concrete tools and methodological guidance on ethics and participatory processes.

You will find more details on the findings in the policy brief which you can download here.