Report on Current Praxis of Policies and Activities Supporting Societal Engagement in Research and Innovation

The aim of the “Engage2020 Project” 1 is to promote the use of engagement methods and policies that support societal engagement in research and innovation by mapping what is practiced and spreading awareness of the opportunities amongst researchers, policy makers, and other interested parties. The project is tasked with scanning existing policies and activities, structures, methods, approaches, tools and instruments, as well as highlighting promising new or adapted approaches for the future. This report includes results of the scanning process on current praxis of policies and activities that support societal engagement in research and innovation in Europe and beyond. Desktop research and interviews, done by all partners of the Engage2020 consortium, were the main methods used to collect data. Overall, information and data on around 200 policies and activities that support societal engagement in research and innovation activities was collected and documented in the form of factsheets. After further analysis and verification, 124 factsheets that form the basis for analysis in this report were selected. The report focuses on policies and activities that support the engagement of societal actors in research and innovation. Specifically, the following actors were considered: Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), citizens, affected populations, consumers, employees, users, and others. These can be engaged at one or more of the different levels of research and innovation process: policy formation, programme development, project definition and research and innovation activity. Furthermore, this engagement could take place in relation to one or more of the seven Grand Challenges identified by the European Commission: health and demographic change, food security and sustainable agriculture, clean and efficient energy, green transport, climate change and resource efficiency, inclusive and innovative societies, and security. Results show that there is developing support for societal engagement in research and innovation activities at all four levels of the research and innovation process. Moreover, we found that there is growing interest at the European Union level to engage citizens in research and innovation activities. A total of 46 cases at this level were reviewed. At the national level, our results show that societal engagement was more prevalent in the Western European countries than in the Central and Eastern European countries. At the international level, we found strong policy support for societal engagement in North America and Canada. Only a few such cases were found in Africa and Asia. We cannot claim to have exhausted all the available policies and activities that support the engagement of societal actors in research and innovation activities in Europe and beyond. However, the results showed that there are many good examples of policies and activities that support societal engagement. These could be used as building blocks to further support societal engagement throughout Europe. The results also showed that there are several gaps and barriers that need to be filled and addressed for societal engagement to achieve its intended outcomes. Several barriers to societal engagement such as lack of time and resources, training and skills, poor infrastructure, as well as lack of evaluation and an underdeveloped culture of engagement are also highlighted. These and other gaps in the research and innovation process have the potentials to interfere with the quality and quantity of engagement processes. Overall, we found that most of the examples given in this report could be used as a source of inspiration for those interested in developing or using supportive policies for societal engagement in research and innovation. Many policies and activities could support engagement at one or more levels of the research and innovation process and most could be used in stimulating engagement for any Grand Challenge related research or innovative activity. 1 http://engage2020.eu