The DNA of socially responsible innovation

T he nature and purpose of academic and industrial research has slowly been changing during the past decades. Academic research, in particular of the applied nature, is more frequently done in collaboration with industrial partners and attracts funding from industry or private foundations that support research. Even public funding agencies increasingly require scientists to justify their work by explicitly asking them to clarify potential social relevance. Industrial research and development (R&D) not only needs to come up with sophisticated and competitive new products and services but also has to demonstrate social or environmental responsibility to contribute to a more positive corporate image [1]. As a general trend, scientists, both in academic and industrial research are increasingly expected to adopt so-called Socially Responsible Innovation (SRI) practices. To install SRI, policy makers and scholars from the social sciences and humanities encourage natural scientists and engineers to actively integrate social and ethical considerations into their R&D [2–4]. These considerations concern environmental sustainability, public health and safety, legislation, communication, research integrity and so on. Most of these issues are more relevant in development and translational research, where scientific discoveries are closer to actual applications and new products. As such, SRI is especially important for industrial R&D and academic applied research (but possibly less so in fundamental scientific work such as theoretical physics). These considerations of relevant social and ethical aspects are best realised through close collaboration between natural and social scientists, in which natural scientists and engineers provide their expertise on the particular project, and social scientists provide expertise on the social and ethical aspects and how to include these in R&D practice.