Fostering a Transition towards Responsible Research and Innovation Systems The main objective of FoTRRIS is to develop and introduce new governance practices to foster Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) policies and methods in research and innovation systems. Since research and innovation systems and practices in different European MS and within different research performing organisations vary, FoTRRIS will consider the implementation of new governance practices in five different MS In order to stress that responsible research and innovation is a collaborative activity from the very beginning—collaboration starts ‘upstream’, from the definition of the problem or challenge, continues with the analysis of the problem, the projection of potential solutions, the design of a research and innovation project that aims at realising a solution, and goes on during its performance and monitoring—FoTRRIS adds the prefix ‘co’ to the acronym RRI. Moreover, because important present-day challenges are (at least partially) of a global nature, but manifest themselves in ways that are influenced by local conditions, FoTRRIS focusses on ‘glocal’ challenges, i.e. local/regional manifestations of global challenges and on ‘local’ opportunities for solving them. FoTRRIS will perform a transition experiment, i.e. an experiment to support the transformation of present-day research and innovation strategies into co-RRI-strategies. It will design, test and validate the organisation, operation and funding of a co-RRI-hub. This hub is conceived as a small organisational unit, that will function as a local one-stop innovation platform that encourages various knowledge actors from science, policy, industry and civil society to co-design, -perform, and –monitor co-RRI-projects that are attuned to local manifestations of global sustainability challenges. The transition experiments performed in 5 member states will be evaluated and policy recommendations to implement co-RRI derived.

Forced displacement crises overcome societies and institutions all over the world. Pushed by the urgencies rather than events, solutions are frequently reactive, partial, and disregard some groups. The project ‘Reshaping Attention and Inclusion Strategies for Distinctively vulnerable people among the forcibly displaced’ (RAISD) aims at identifying highly Vulnerable Groups (VG) among these forcibly displaced people, analysing their specific needs, and finding suitable practices to address them. The concept of ‘vulnerability context’ considers the interplay between the features of these persons and their hosting communities, their interactions and experiences, and how different solutions for attention and inclusion affect them. As a result of this work, a methodology to carry out these studies will be developed. These goals are aligned with the call. They pursue characterizing these migrations and developing suitable aid strategies for them. The Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) frames the project. It proposes that all actors (including civil society) co-design actions, transversely integrates the gender perspective, and supports sustainability. Our research strategy will be based on methodological triangulation (i.e. the combined application of several methodologies). We will implement it through a specific participatory action research approach to fulfil the aim of undertaking advocacy-focused research, grounded in human rights and socio-ecological models. The team will work as a network of units in countries along migration routes. The units will promote the VG people’ involvement, so they can speak with their own voices, gather information, and test practices. Work will rely on a tight integration of Social and Computer Sciences research. Automated learning and data mining will help to provide evidence-based recommendations, reducing a priori biases. A software tool will support collaboration, continuing previous H2020-funded RRI work.

ClearClimate is aimed to create an International, Interdisciplinary, and Intersectoral (“3-i”) for creative scholars with strong theoretical and practical skills, needed to tackle the major challenges of the Climate Information Services (CIS) development. The focus will be on developing staff and partner skills in the areas of user-centred design and behavioural science coupled with improved computational techniques which in turn will offer more appropriate and efficacious CIS solutions. The researchers will upgrade their “soft skills” that will enable them to transfer effectively their knowledge to the productive world, thus fostering the European market to create innovation. These will result from a close partnership between the academy, providing the researchers with up-to-date training and knowledge on cutting-edge research on targeted multidisciplinary topics, and a group of industries, who will complete the competencies of the ERs and ESRs by exposing them to practical and real-life challenges in CIS development. The main domains of interest of the ClearClimate project lie in the interconnected areas of climate change and climate extremes, data visualization, decision sciences, communication, accessibility, eye tracking research methodology and visual attention models, and XAI, which are the most relevant disciplines for the development of the frameworks for effective CIS. Secondments, soft skills training, exploitation of scientific results, dissemination, and public engagement, play also a central role in this network since they are designed to promote the dissemination of excellent research and diffusion of innovation in Europe. The creation of such an international, cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary, and life-long network of ERs and ESRs, trained across sectors in an innovative way, will direct Europe to strengthen its international R&I.

At present, energy conservation campaigns provide households with a general awareness but do not provoke large scale behavior changes. The main goal of the STEP_BY_STEP is to maximize the number of households in a given area that significantly change their behaviour at home. Desired behaviour change includes reduced electricity consumption and the investment in energy efficient products and/or high quality renewable energy products. Communication strategies involving direct contact are typically more effective on behavioural change than mass media campaigns. Thus, a system will be put into place to make individual door-to-door contact with 80% of the households in a given area. Contrary to traditional door-to-door canvassing, often seen as a one-shot deal, our project solicits targeted households regularly through email or by phone and accompanies them over a 20 month period towards the adoption of energy-saving practices. To reduce the attitude-behaviour gap, our system uses proven communication techniques that push towards action. Households are regularly encouraged to try new ecological gestures adapted to their level of motivation. Feedback is given and social norms are used. Community-based social marketing strategies will be used to encourage energy-related investment decisions. Households likely to take individual investment decisions will be motivated to take such decisions benefiting from economies of scale and facilitated by other households’ experience. Institutional partners will launch their energy saving interventions amongst 9000 households in 4 European areas that represent diverse populations and communities. French SME E3D will provide a behavioral strategy along with a web based system for behavioral change developed within a research project. Partnered laboratories will analyze household energy saving behavior patterns based on profiles and will define the environmental and economic impact of the project. Power Link will ensure the dissemination.

Reducing underachievement in basic skills and Early School Leaving (ESL) rates is at the core of the strategic and political priorities for the European Commission. This has become even more critical in a post-pandemic era where students coming from lower socioeconomic status, refugees, migrants, Roma, etc. are not reaching the competencies to thrive in life. SCIREARLY is determined to identify, systematize and replicate successful policies and practices based on scientific research that has proven to reduce underachievement in basic skills, including digital skills, while fostering psycho-emotional aspects and well-being. This know-how will contribute to reducing ESL in Europe, enabling upward social mobility for the most vulnerable groups. To this aim, SCIREARLY will (1) examine the determinants, including the influence of high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) in learning outcomes (2) measure and verify the impact of these determinants on vulnerable groups, identifying successful pathways to overcome it (3) map and replicate most successful practices in addressing low achievement in basic skills (4) develop a framework and an instrument for diagnosis and enhancing the quality of ECEC to leverage quality learning outcomes for primary and secondary pupils (5) analyse and propose transferable and scalable political measures that have proven to reduce ESL. As a result, SCIREARLY will provide evidence-based findings to recreate and scale up optimal learning environments reducing underachievement from a preventive perspective, especially for vulnerable groups; this will be done from an interdisciplinary approach and mixed-methods design including multilevel, quasi-experimental, and life course perspectives. The project relies on a participatory and dialogic approach that promotes the co-creation of scientific knowledge and solutions among educators, students, families, scientists and policy-makers, ensuring the societal impact of the project.