Responsible research & innovation (RRI) Project directory

COMPASS has compiled an overview of RRI projects and initiatives carried out in Europe over the course of the past ten years. The COMPASS project directory below contains 130 publicly funded RRI projects in Europe. Our project directory aims to facilitate the search for RRI projects in Europe. You can download search instructions here.

For a quick look at the key figures check out our factsheet. For a detailed outline, have a look at the COMPASS policy paper, which maps out approaches, objectives and thematic priorities of publicly funded RRI projects at European level, and describes their spread across Europe via budget shares and numbers of participations.

You can find more information, results and project output on responsible innovation in the European Commission’s database CORDIS, as well as the RRI Toolkit!

Over the course of the project, it has become evident that rules, regulations and funding criteria could function as external incentives to implement responsible innovation in SMEs. The Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), as coordinator of the COMPASS project, has therefore developed recommendations for EU research and innovation policy, with support of the COMPASS High Level Expert Advisory Board.

PATGOV

Project Acronym: PATGOV
Project Title: The governance of the European patent system
Funding Programme: Horizon 2020
Link: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/215714/factsheet/en
Responsible Innovation Dimension:
Description: The functioning of the European patent system has been called into question from many different angles. The criticisms range from discontent with low patent quality and with backlogs in patent examination to ethical concerns about ‘patents-on-life’, and from accountability/legitimacy problems of the European Patent Office (EPO) to fundamental doubt about whether patenting fits the current research and innovation models, especially in emerging technologies such as for example biotechnology. The current European patent system is however a rather closed system (that primarily services patent applicants) and it is not inclined to take on board such criticisms and/or considerations that are relevant to society at large. Put differently: the system is currently not aligned with the main principles of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Research in this field seems however to be stuck in –very similar- diagnoses of what is wrong with the system. The project takes the analysis an important step further by looking at changes needed in the governance of the European patent system in order to substantially enhance its responsiveness to societal stakeholders. It tries to explain the limited actual use of inclusive mechanisms that are currently available in the European patent system. It assesses similar mechanisms that are used by other regional patent systems and could potentially be transferred to the European patent system. It looks at changes needed in the institutional set-up of the European patent system in order to enhance responsiveness. The project also analyses changes needed in European patent law that could open up the patent system to more inclusive IP rights, and it addresses the likely impact the new EU Unitary Patent will have on the responsiveness of the European patent system.

Responsible Innovation COMPASS

Evidence and Opportunities for Responsible Innovation in SMEs

Find out more
Top