The ROSIE: RESPONSIBLE & INNOVATIVE SMEs IN CENTRAL EUROPE project held its final event (virtually) on 23 June 2020, a celebration and presentation of three year’s work carried out across 8 central European countries and involving 11 partners.

The aim of the project was to improve skills among entrepreneurs and innovation actors and to promote responsible innovation in companies based in countries where the skills and policy frameworks necessary for the implementation of RI practices are still maturing. The project also developed and tested tools and training to improve capacity to implement innovation responsibly.

The Bassetti Foundation has worked alongside the project throughout its duration. Angela Simone offered her broad project expertise and personal experience within the SMART-Map project while Jonathan Hankins participated as responsible innovation expert, also opening the plenary session of the final meeting. Both recorded a series of introduction to responsible innovation videos for the project, available in English and in Italian.

The final meeting was virtually hosted by Bautzen Innovation Centre, Responsible Project partner for the Virtual Summit, and after a brief introduction from Moderator Antonie Muschalek of Mobilitätswerk GmbH, CEO Michael Paduch greeted participants with an overview of the region and organizations working within and alongside the Innovation Center. Video is available here.

Jonathan Hankins then opened the plenary session with a prepared video addressing the question What does Responsible Innovation look like in a business context?
The video presents a light-hearted look at the problems faced when trying to introduce the RI concept to small businesses. The presentation was prepared in character (following the tradition of action theatre in academic use as a teaching tool for ethics) and addresses the problem of the gap found between the language used in RI publications (of all sorts) and that used in the small business world.

Hankins uses a circus metaphor to represent the balancing act proposed in various EU and Business Standards publications and documents, using the balance metaphor for high-wire walking and officially published goals and approaches as juggling balls. Watch the 15-minute video below.

This presentation was followed by Giulia Bubbolini of CISE, Lead Partner of the ROSIE project. Bubbolini offered an in-depth analysis of the process of carrying out the project, addressing not only the successes but also the difficulties faced in implementing such an ambitious task. The necessity of team-working was evident throughout her description, as was the logic behind the partner choices and the positions they represent across Europe.

Before coming to the Q&A section of the plenary, Markus Will presented The meaning of RRI and sustainability in SMEs – Findings from the ROSIE project. Will presented a series of graphs and bar charts through which he demonstrated both a series of similarities between the partner experiences as well as a series of defining differences. He showed the effect of different political histories and geographies on the perception of RI approaches (also in relation to sustainability) and the project itself across Europe, all of which made for an interesting and thought-provoking analysis.

As noted, a short question and answer section followed in which the issue of language and communication were prevalent within a more general discussion of the future of RI implementation within business.

The event then broke into parallel breakout sessions, conducted in home languages. Each partner first described their experiences and roadmaps before showing video interviews conducted with their participants, closing with a Q&A session.

Participants were then welcomed back to the main meeting, where the First Hungarian Responsible Innovation Association took the reins. Miklós Lukovics and Nikoletta Nádas presented a video of their experiences before Nádas made a live presentation of a series of new initiatives and projects currently being rolled out in Hungary.

Giulia Bubbolini closed the event with words of thanks for all of those involved.

On behalf of all here at the Foundation we would like to congratulate all those involved on the successful completion of a very demanding project. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with them all.

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