VTI department receives H2020 SwafS funding for two projects

Two projects have been granted to researchers of the VTI department within the H2020 SwafS (Science with and for Society) call. Emad Yaghmaei and Geerten van de Kaa received 270,000 euro funding for the Co-Change project. The total budget is 1.5 million euro. Co-Change supports the implementation of institutional changes of R&I actors within and beyond the key areas of Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI), through an innovative systemic approach centred on the concept of change labs in research performing (RPOs) and research funding ecosystems (RFOs). These change labs act as instruments for promoting and sustaining institutional change. The project activates change coalitions around each lab, paying particular attention to interactions and dependencies of actors. The Delft Centre of Entrepreneurship of the faculty of TPM will act as a change lab with focus on developing sustainable start-up opportunities. The Netherlands Standardization Institute (NEN), also based in Delft, is another change lab that focuses on moral values in standardisation. TU Delft will be monitoring the added value of RRI in these and other Co-change project’ change labs, which will result in a set of KPIs, a toolbox and field book for a self-check on RRI practices for RPOs and RFOs.

Neelke Doorn received 230,000 euro funding within the PRO-Ethics project. The total budget is 3 million euro, which was funded within the Swafs track ‘Ethics of Innovation: the challenge of new interaction modes’. Active participation of citizens in science and innovation has gained prominence. At the same time, new IT tools have profoundly impacted the way in which researchers work and interact. These developments are promising and have numerous advantages. However, these new modes of innovation also raise ethical and regulatory considerations, including concerns regarding the protection of participating citizens, their potential exploitation, the collection of big data and related privacy considerations, as well as intellectual property issues. The overall objective of PRO-ethics is to exploit and promote a comprehensive, co-developed, tested and widely consulted ethics framework that enables a more effective handling of the ethical dimension of innovation, based on principles that respond to citizens' needs and values, improves access and avoids a technological divide.