Using Indicators to further Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)?

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has been high on the agenda of funders such as the European Commission (EC). Encouraging the use of indicators to further implementation of RRI has been a prominent feature in EC RRI funding calls. However, we provide evidence that using indicators for institutional RRI work is far from unproblematic. Indicator use vary considerably along national norms and organizational cultures. Whereas RRI indicators may have advantages in institutions generally governed by indicators, we show that in other settings, indicators may cause outright resistance to RRI and may be seen as curbing learning. If used, indicators should facilitate learning and take up as few resources as possible with respect to reporting. We further show that evaluations that include users, are a viable alternative to indicators with respect to implementation of responsible research and innovation. We finish the paper with practical advice on working with RRI indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]