Open and inclusive ethical governance of research and innovation: a literature review

ETHNA System Project – Deliverable 2.3: Review article.

This article provides a review of responsible research and innovation (RRI) literature, with a particular focus on how to provide open and inclusive ethical governance of research and innovation with a sound and solid theoretical foundation. Governance in this context refers to ways of steering processes in a desirable direction, in this case in the direction of responsible research and innovation, that is ethically acceptable and socially desirable. The concept of a meta-governance is subsequently introduced, enabling a mode of governance by procedural ethical principles that set the rules of the game, and provide a common direction to R&I activities. In this article we will draw lessons from the RRI literature on governance and meta-governance relevant for informing ETHNA and similar RRI-initiatives that aim to be open and inclusive. The article is based on the ETHNA report on state of the art and best practices (Moan et al. 2021) and is suitable as a book chapter in anthologies on ethics governance systems for RRI in Higher Education, Funding and Research Centres (HEFRCs).