Pilots Phase 1

Pilot case 1 was implemented by Austrian funding agency FFG and reflected upon in collaboration with Spanish partner CDTI. It focused on two different funding schemes with citizen participation, called ‘benefit’ and ‘AAL’ (Active and Assisted Living Programme) respectively. Both programs fund research projects aimed at ICT-based solutions to increase the quality of life of older adults, but benefit is a national program while AAL is a transnational effort on a European scale. The innovation concept is based on involving different types of end-users (older adults and their relatives, providers of services of general interest, NGOs, interest groups, …) from the conception phase of the project right up to its completion. This ensures that solutions address real requests and needs and are consequently considered useful, helpful, attractive, and accepted by consumers.

Several so called ‘test regions’ have been funded so far that allow transdisciplinary Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) to be performed while including enterprises, end-user organizations, technical and scientific partners, and involving essential amounts of end-users. Ethical factors play a significant role in the market-oriented development of ICT-based solutions for older adults, both as regards the planned products, systems, and services but also in terms of involving people during the project. These ethical factors cover issues of human dignity, protection of privacy, as well as honesty about potential risks involved in project participation. To cope with these challenges, a so-called ethics checklist (‘Ethik-Checkliste’) has been developed to support projects in dealing with ethical issues.

The pilot in PRO-Ethics aimed to reflect on 1) the added value and the design of end-user involvement; 2) the coverage of relevant gender issues; 3) the extent to which ethically sound procedures and approaches are applied throughout the whole development phase and beyond; and 4) the tackling of transdisciplinarity (finding a common language and establish common ground).

Pilot case 2 was implemented by German funding agency VDI/VDE-IT and reflected upon in collaboration with Czech partner TACR. Integrating a societal perspective into funded technology driven research projects has been a challenge for quite a while for the VDI/VDE-IT and their clients. There have been examples, as for instance the prominent failure of the German ‘naked scanner’ for airport security, which proofed that anticipating ethics and social norms are crucial for new technologies to be accepted and applied. Hence, funding agencies face the challenge of supporting innovation projects to take citizens’ perspectives into account.

Pilot case 2 focused on a funding program by the German Ministry of education and research (BMBF) in the field of new and emerging technologies, called ‘Bringing technology to the people’ (Technik zum Menschen bringen). Since 2012 there is an increasing demand for R&I projects to take the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of their work into account. This is encouraged by including interdisciplinary research and civil society actors as well as ethic boards into funding calls. The pilot investigated if this encouragement actually succeeded and what interdisciplinary modes of conduct were able to consider citizen engagement in an innovative and beneficiary way. The pilot case aimed at identifying modes of interdisciplinary conduct and developing funding instruments that support projects to consider these.

Pilot case 3 was implemented by Norwegian funding agency RCN in collaboration with Lithuanian funding agency RCL. The purpose of pilot case 3 was to develop a model for how to consult stakeholders and citizens in the phase before calls are developed and published. Based on experiences gleaned from several different activities, the pilot aimed to develop a checklist to ensure ethical considerations in participation processes.

- One experiment was carried out within health research where the purpose was to finance research projects defined by the users themselves, not just by the researchers. The inspiration and background were concepts like ‘Priority Setting Partnerships’ and ‘Commissioned Research’. The experiment was restricted to issues in relation to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). As part of this experiment, an open invitation was issues in particular to people ‘living with the disease’ to suggest research topics in this field. From there, a user panel was established with members from different patient/user organisations, representatives from patients and their relatives, health authorities, researchers and RCN’s Financing Programs. The panels discussed call text and phase 1 simple application. Representatives for the financing boards made the final decisions on the projects invited to phase 2, and the final grant.

- Another equivalent method was explored within a call regarding gender equality in academia. RCN has a policy-oriented program (BALANSE) aiming to promote gender balance in Norwegian research. Prior to the 2018-call relevant institutions, end-users, organizations, and researchers were invited to partake in the process of defining call topics.

- A third input to case 3 was carried out in Lithuania on need driven research, where RCL initiated a new field of activities. The first call was launched in June 2015. Need driven research is the research dedicated to strategically significant and urgent issues under the topics of research and development programs, proposed by the Office of the President, the Parliament, the Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania.

These activities contributed to the formulation of research topics for the experiments, and furthermore to an ongoing discussion on research integrity in Lithuania and Norway. An established dialog with the national municipality organization contributed to further input to the checklist.

Pilot case 4 was implemented by Brussels-based funding agency Innoviris and reflected upon in collaboration with Romanian partner UEFISCDI. From 2015, the Brussels capital region (BCR) financed the ‘co-create program’ aimed at increasing the resiliency of the region through participatory-by-design research projects. The framework of the co-create program implied a close collaboration between a variety of actors (research organizations, non-profit organizations and ultimately citizens, companies) at all stages of the preparation and implementation of the projects. Setting up the co-create program raised a lot of questions and challenges related to existing regulatory framework, new concepts (and related vocabulary) and their respective understandings, among others. Nevertheless, the decision was made to launch the program and to work on an essentially empirical (and somehow experimental) base, leaving room for progressive improvement based on mutual learning between all stakeholders, including Innoviris. To tackle the various difficulties related to the nature and scope of the program, an intermediary structure, the ‘co-create support center’, was put in place as a transversal project with the aim to accompany the co-creation dynamics, facilitate collective learning and to disseminate the knowledge produced. In 2018, the support center suggested to extend citizen participation, from their involvement as beneficiaries to an active participation in the selection process of the proposals (ex-ante evaluation of the projects). This idea led to the setup of a ‘citizen jury’ as part of the main selection jury. The group, composed of 8 to 10 citizens, followed a preparation path in order to feel ready to select the projects.