Last month the Virtual Institute for Responsible Innovation announced that several new partners had been voted into the organization. The new partners bring in new geographical areas, most notably with the addition of South Korean and Japanese institutions.

The new members are the following:

ISIS, The Institute for Strategic Innovation and Services, led by its Director Xavier Pavie and based at the EESEC Business School in Paris, France.

Over the past five years, ESSEC-ISIS has dedicated much research towards developing the concept of responsible innovation, and since 2012 has its own Responsible Innovation Department. Pavie is co-author of the recent Responsible Innovation: From Concept to Practice.

Center for Science, Technology & Society (CSTS), led by Director of the Center for Science, Technology & Society Hee-Je Bak and based at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.

Since its foundation in 2011, one of the main goals of CSTS has been to provide theoretical and empirical knowledge on scientific governance for socially equitable, politically democratic, and ethically and environmentally responsible S&T innovation. The centre is currently conducting research on scientific and technological governance.

The University of Nottingham Institute for Science and Society, headed by Dr Sujatha Raman , Deputy Director of the Leverhulme Making Science Public Programme, based in Nottingham, UK.

The Institute has interests that span science and public engagement, responsible innovation, media and culture and expertise and policy-making, in areas that include energy technologies, sustainability, climate change and antibiotic resistance.

The Program for Education and Research on Science and Technology in Public Sphere (StiPS), led by its Director Tadashi Kobayashi at Osaka University and Kyoto University, Japan.

The StiPS program promotes research and education on ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) of
science and technology, and into education and social practices of public engagement with science and technology. Their aim is to develop individuals’ ability to address social and normative questions concerning research and application of science and technology in making public policy, research strategy at universities and R&D planning at firms.

The UCL Department of Science and technology Studies, headed by Jack Stilgoe (who many readers will know) and based in London, UK.

The Department of Science and Technology Studies is homne to the UK Hub for Responsible Research and Innovation that was established as part of the responsible Research and Innovation Toolkit project. Stilgoe is well known for his work within the UK Research Council to develop a framework for responsible innovation and for his membership of the European Commission’s Expert Group of Responsible Research and Innovation.

The VIRI website Partner page has links to both the founding partners and those newly announced.

As a Founding Institutional Affiliate of the VIRI, The Bassetti Foundation and its collaborators very much look forward to working with the new Partners.

——————-