Science Shops are structures that facilitate science-society collaborations by providing independent, participatory research support in response to concerns experienced by civil society. The current Research and Innovation (R&I) system is under increasing pressure to become more inclusive and responsive to current and future societal challenges. Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and Open Science are policy imperatives to come to conceptual and practical ways to transform the R&I system in this direction. However, the widespread implementation of RRI approaches is not yet straightforward.  

In this webinar, Eduardo Urias (Assistant Professor at the Athena Institute (VU University Amsterdam) presents a framework for Science Shop processes developed within the InSPIRES project on how Science Shops can serve as models to translate RRI, participatory research and Open Science policies into practice. The framework is based on an article co-authored by E. Urias, F. Vogels, S. Yalcin, R. Malagrida, N. Steinhaus, and M. Zweekhorst, on behalf of the InSPIRES project.

Urias presents the framework key elements, its evolution from the initial approach (from a pure university-based model to a process-based framework of Science Shops work), and how it can serve as an inspiration to transform current Science Shops into platforms for piloting and diffusing best practices in RRI and Open Science. Through bridging different scientific and social knowledge, Science Shops can improve the effectiveness, quality, acceptance, impact and sustainability of solutions for complex societal problems and become RRI best-practices for approaches of co-creation, anticipation, reflection and deliberation in science with and for society. 

The invited speaker is Dr Alexandra Albert,  a social researcher based in the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group in the Geography Department at University College London (UCL). 

This webinar will explore the differences and similarities in the approaches of citizen science, citizen social science, and extreme citizen science, and will ask what the benefits are of distinguishing between them. It will firstly look at the ways in which these different approaches to doing participatory research have been theorised, and then will draw on practical examples of how they have played out in practice, with a particular focus on the context of public health. Lastly the webinar will seek to discuss how these approaches respond to civil society organisations and other stakeholders.   

Speaker: Michela Bertero, Head of International and Scientific Affairs at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, EU-LIFE representative in the European Open Science Policy Platform and coordinator of the H2020 Project ORION on Open Science.

The webinar provides a brief historical perspective on Open Science, followed by a look on Open Science policies and actions today in Europe, and future steps. There will also be a reflection on the dimension of stakeholder engagement in Open Science. Finally, the webinar will conclude with a presentation of the ORION Open Science project (www.orion-openscience.eu), in which there is a combination of Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation concepts. ORION aims to promote engagement of multiple stakeholders in fundamental life sciences research, by trying out multiple co-creation activities and experimenting different methods and contexts. The ultimate goal is to trigger cultural and institutional changes among the research community.

In this webinar, Ignasi Labastida, Doctor in physics, Head of the Research Unit at the CRAI of the University of Barcelona (UB’s Learning and Research Resources Centre) and Board president of SPARC Europe, gives a presentation and lead a discussion on ways to publish, repositories and pre-prints, policies affecting researchers and current trends and future expectations of Open Access.

In this webinar, Budd Hall, Co-Chair of the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education and member of the Advisory Board of the InSPIRES project, gave a presentation and led a discussion on the principles of participatory research and their application to the work of Science Shops.

 

In this webinar, Helen Garrison, Project & Communications Manager at the Swedish organisation Vetenskap & Allmänhet, presented a number of inspiring Science Shop models, illustrated using case studies of existing Science Shops and community-based participatory research initiatives based upon interviews undertaken during the exploratory phase of the project. Examples include pop-up Science Shops, those embracing virtual ways of working as well as more traditional formats, and at a range of different types of organisations (e.g. non-profit, university-based, research institutes).

The webinar explores the practicalities of setting up and running community engaged research projects within the higher education curriculum, through two case studies, one from TU Dublin (Ireland) and one from Queen’s University Belfast (UK).

The case studies are presented by David O’Connor (TU Dublin) and Neil Galway and Helen McGuinness (lecturer and student respectively of the Queen’s University Belfast).

The webinar is facilitated by Catherine Bates (TU Dublin) and Emma McKenna (Queen’s University Belfast).

In this webinar, two expert speakers – who belong to two partner organizations of the InSPIRES Consortium – shares their experiences in different public engagement methodologies.

Dr Frank Kupper, Assistant Professor in Science Communication and Public Engagement at VU Amsterdam. Blending an STS and Arts & Design perspective, he works on the conceptual and methodological innovation of public engagement processes to shape meaningful conversations at various science-society interfaces. Frank talks about a dialogue methodology developed in the context of the EU project Nano2all, based on the co-design of scenarios to anticipate future impacts.

Dr Franco Bagnoli, Associate Professor of Theoretical Matter Physics at the University of Florence, with wide experience in the field of Science Cafés. His presentation briefly illustrates the Science Café methodology and how it can be used within the context of Science Shops. He also shares some Science Shops projects, where this methodology has been applied.

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In this inSPIRES webinar, Dr. Rajesh Tandon, Founder-President of the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) and co-chair of the UNESCO Chair on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, shares his experience in participatory research, with a special focus on health-related projects.

Our speaker has undertaken a number of initiatives to promote engagement of institutions of higher education with civil society and local communities to foster knowledge generation and mutual learning. He presents inspiring examples and recommendations to help to implement this type of projects.

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The InSPIRES project, the Ethical Committee of the Institut Pasteur de Tunis (IPT) and the Regional Training Center (RTC), organizied a webinar about “ethics of biomedical research“.

The webinar was in French, moderated by Hayet Moussa, Research Professor at the Higher Institute of Human Sciences of Tunis (University Tunis El Manar) and IPT Ethical committee member.