The final event of the RRI-LEADERS project, the endorsement workshop in Sofia was held on December 13, 2023 in SofiaLab. The event, organized by Sofia Development Association and the ARC Fund, brought together over 20 participants from Sofia Municipality and local stakeholders from the quadruple helix (NGOs, academia).
The meeting aimed to present to municipal policy- and decision-makers, local stakeholders, and experts the Transformative Outlook developed under the RRI-LEADERS project. The outlook for Sofia Municipality is the result of an intensive co-creation process that the project partners followed over the past two years. The document includes the policy objectives and actions for four policy areas for Sofia, namely, (i) support for innovation, (ii) digital transition and new skills, (iii) youth employment and entrepreneurship, and (iv) sustainable urban development. In addition to policy-specific actions, for each policy the outlook presents activities related to the framework of responsible research and innovation (RRI-AIRR). Both the actions and the RRI-related measures have been formulated and discussed in a series of local stakeholder meetings and confirmed by a panel of randomly selected citizens.
Feedback from the participants emphasized the potential of this forward-looking document to influence policymaking and implementation, by enhancing policymaking practices with the input from research and innovation and ensuring that citizens and stakeholders are actively involved in the process. In times of deep socio-technological transformations there is a growing need for consensus-building around contentious societal matters and the participatory models of policy development tested by the project can provide much-needed pathways for increasing the effectiveness, efficiency, and legitimacy of public policies.
RRI Leaders is funded by Horizon2020.