Coming up with radically new ideas based on excellent science and being able to materialize it with real benefits for the society is a tremendous challenge. It not only relies on the capability and inspiring potential of the researchers, but in the suitability and synergy of other factors of very different nature: society perception, economic/political context, gender/ethic issues, or its matching with real social needs. Early detection of this type of ideas and resources facilitation is key to enable the kick-off of promising future technologies. The EU has developed several programs for giving financial support to these technologies, although competition is fierce, on one hand, and a considerable proportion of proposals submitted does not reach the quality threshold, on the other hand. PREFET will address the former challenges by creating a methodology platform which will connect the three pillars we consider essential for a successful design and use of FET: a) technology trends detection and analysis combining the most advanced AI engines with human intelligence and social perception; b) RRI trends analysis (and their social impact) and tools for best practices and implementation, especially aligned with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and c) innovation capacity building. This means going beyond the observatory position and proactively detecting, engaging and supporting researchers with high potential to become FET winners, underpinned by the responsible research approach. RTDI, Linknovate, Trilateral Research and De Montfort University, have extensive experience in the field of technology watch, trends analysis, project ideation & project building and RRI implementation. Thanks to their own research activities and innovative methodologies, together with the know-how of FET context, we really feel that PREFET will address the need of boosting the European leadership force and create long-term innovations of great benefit for society.

Different "machines of trust" in science have been identified in the literature: research ethics, research integrity, science communication, benefit sharing and technology assessment. Previous EU funded projects have focused on particular actors of the trust in science ecosystem (e.g. scientists, research funding organisations, research ethics committees) to explore the impact of particular "machines" (e.g. science communication, research ethics). VERITY goes beyond the state of the art by conceptualising "stewards of trust" as the actors of the ecosystem that are responsible for upholding societal trust in science and facilitating science-society co-creation, either this refers to formally responsible organisations like research funding organisations and higher education institutions, or it refers to de facto responsible organisations like social media companies and video streaming platforms which influence societal perceptions of science and innovation. VERITY combines multidisciplinary expertise, both from the social sciences and engineering, to synthesise existing knowledge to evaluate tools and methods for enhancing trust in science through original research and small-scale participatory activities, before producing the VERITY Protocol of Recommendations for "stewards of trust". VERITY brings forward interdisciplinary expertise to perform network analysis and execute interventions on social media, to validate the VERITY Protocol and alleviate practical barriers for its uptake in practice by different stakeholders. VERITY findings will be widely disseminated to different "stewards of trust", such as policymakers, research funding and performing organisations, higher education institutions and other research and innovation actors, to enhance societal trust in science and facilitate science-society co-creation.

MEMENTOES will build immersive video games to service the needs, and facilitate mass audience affection for museums engaged in the topics of memorialisation and transitional justice. The goal is to create authentic storytelling experiences, where people, places and original items, are used to maximum effect to fulfill the museum’s responsibility to provide immersive, deeply personal experiences that aim to demonstrate empathy toward their communities. Through cutting-edge technology, such as virtual/mixed reality,high-quality digitisation techniques, AI for explorative procedural content generation, and accessible interaction techniques, MEMENTOES will deliver a universal experience where distant people and places will become palpable and present to the players. MEMENTOES will involve a multi-disciplinary team of museum curators, designers and exhibit developers, as well as technology providers and visionary game developers so as to uncover the types of connections museum visitors are making, enabling the game makers to understand the types of education techniques and behaviors that foster historical empathy and tangential learning outcomes and draw appropriate parallels to game storytelling frameworks. Three game will be developed, each targeting an authentic museum recognised internationally as a Site of Conscience, to help get deliver the museum messages to wider audiences from around the world, transcending even the boundaries put in place by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. MEMENTOES will further facilitate a liaison with the outcomes of HORIZON-CL2-HERITAGE-2021-01-09: ‘Games and culture shaping our society’, contributing with its evidence on games as a vehicle to engage cultural institution visitors in empathetic responses.

Current European research and innovation (R&I) and security policies aim to address challenges that threaten European societies by deploying security technologies. Security technologies are typically intended to promote public safety, security and increase societal resilience. At the same time, security technologies spur controversies and can have enormous societal, legal, ethical, economic and political impact. Such technologies often infringe human rights, reproduce and reinforce power imbalances and social injustice. Civil society is rarely or restrictively involved during research and development of security technologies, and thus societal concerns might not be well addressed in this process. Security technologies and R&I should not create societal mistrust or missed opportunities to jointly build societal resilience. TRANSCEND aims to improve practices of citizen and societal engagement in security R&I: to enable individuals, and organisations that speak on their behalf, to participate actively and creatively in iterative processes of design and deployment. TRANSCEND will develop a Toolbox of methods to enhance the involvement of civil society in security R&I. The Toolbox will be tested and evaluated in four pilots, in close collaboration with diverse ‘on the ground’ organisations by bringing together transdisciplinary actors from academia, government, industry and society (Quadruple Helix). The TRANSCEND Framework will present guidelines on how to design and structure meaningful civil society and public engagement for societal impact assessment for security research technologies and present domain-specific instructions for the use of the TRANSCEND toolbox. TRANSCEND will contribute to the uptake of effective methods for citizen and societal engagement throughout the EU, so that civil society are given a louder voice, a place at the right tables and security practitioners are motivated and equipped to enhance such participation.

Across Europe there is a rise of political movements that claim to challenge liberal elites and speak for the 'ordinary person' - movements that can be loosely categorised as 'populist'. Many of these movements have undesirable tendencies. The Populism and Civic Engagement project (PACE), with others, aims to combat the negative tendencies of populist movements, to build upon the lessons of positive examples (such as Reykjavik), and hence play a part in constructing a firmer democratic and institutional foundation for the citizens of Europe. PACE will analyse, in detail, the type, growth and consequences of such movements in terms of their particular characteristics and context. From this, it will analyse the causes of these movements and their specific challenges to liberal democracy a possibilistic analysis to complement survey/statistical approaches. In particular, it will focus on transitions in these movements (especially changes in leadership) as well as how they relate to other kinds of movements and the liberal reaction. PACE will propose responses to these challenges, developing risk-analyses for each kind of response, each kind of movement and the type of transition. For this, it will employ the agent-based simulation of political processes and attitudes to allow for thorough risk analyses to be made. Throughout the project, it will engage with citizens and policy actors, especially groups under-represented in public affairs, face-face and via new forms of democratic participation appropriate to our digital age to help guide the project and to comment on its outputs. It will develop new tools, based on machine-learning algorithms for identifying and tracking populist narratives and to aid online consultation. It will result in specific interventions aimed at: the public, politicians, activists and educators. It will look further into the future, developing new visions concerning how we could respond to populism and it will warn about longer-term trends.