regional clusters Archives

TRANSFORM is now entering its third, final, year. The experimentation with citizen engagement activities and RRI implementation into regional R&I governance will be completed in all three clusters, drawing conclusions and lessons learned into the project outcomes.

Strategic Roadmaps for the implementation and support of territorial RRI through three tested methodologies – participatory research agenda setting, citizen science and multistakeholder engagement – within S3 priorates that will provide comprehensive guidelines on the applied methodologies in three regions.

RRI Maps will show efforts that TRANSFORM regional R&I ecosystems have done towards the inclusion of RRI elements within their R&I activities and funding. An inspiration for existing innovation scoreboards that would benefit from integrating RRI indicators.

In addition, Policy Recommendations to transforming regional R&I systems towards RRIresulting from the mutual learning process will provide inspiration to regional governments and local authorities who would like to replicate TRANSFORM processes and implement RRI components within their R&I policies.

The continuous monitoring and evaluation will result in several public deliverables,

Impact pathways for RRI Initiatives in Regional R&I Ecosystems
Monitoring and Evaluation Guide
TRANSFORM: An Assessment of Outcomes and Impacts

that will provide insights into TRANSFORM’s approach to this task including processes, practices, methodologies and indicators used as well as the impact assessment of the project. At the same time, it will also cover the overall impact assessment in terms of the actual impact of mature innovations taken up in society beyond the scope of the project. These deliverables will provide guidance to others interested in monitoring and evaluating the impact of RRI at territorial level.

A project e-book will present the experimentation processes of all three clusters explored in the project, detailing used methodologies, strengths, weaknesses and practical hints to replicate the activities; an easy-to-use guide for policymakers and local stakeholders to implement RRI and participatory approaches in S3. It will be presented in a project webinar along with other results with an objective to trigger more RRI approaches in S3.

Each regional cluster will organise a local final event presenting the project results, strengthening links built among quadruple helix stakeholders and celebrating the outcomes of the work done in the past three years. The final conference will be organised in Milan to invite stakeholders from all over Europe to showcase project achievements, reflect on lessons learned together with other projects and discuss the main challenges and future trends shaping the territorial RRI in regional R&I.

We will keep exploring synergies with other projects and initiatives, and share our knowledge and experiences during the events at European, national, regional and local level.

Stay tuned!

The end of the year also meant the end of the second year of TRANSFORM. Reflecting on 2022, it was a busy year for us with the launch of citizen engagement activities in all three regions and a successful review meeting. Although we did not have a chance to meet in person (again), we benefited from mutual learning activities, participated in several international and territorial events and hosted a session within the European Week of Regions and Cities. Read more about what we have been up to in the second year AND what’s coming next…

While all regional clusters have been working towards the implementation of RRI into their S3 strategies, they all have their specificities in approach and applied methodologies for citizen engagement.

Lombardy cluster organized a deliberative process to collect and understand the citizens needs and shape regional R&I priorities accordingly. First, TRANSFOM partners launched a survey on the regional population needs, in which a representative sample of Lombardy citizens took part (approximately 1000). The survey was followed by a deliberative workshop on just energy transition for all, a topic chosen based on the outcomes of the survey and its relevance for regional policy-making. 18 people took part in the online workshop and reached a common agreement on recommendations for policy-makers. The outcomes of the whole deliberative process were translated into the 2021-2023 Strategic Programme for Research and Innovation. At the same time, it was presented as an inspiring example to other departments and units of Lombardy Region and to key regional R&I stakeholders.

Brussels-Capital launched its pilot activities to implement open and inclusive processes to better connect local research and innovation (R&I) to societal needs while involving 4-helix stakeholders. The aim is to introduce this approach to public-funded R&I. The regional partners selected critical innovations related to the broad topic of circular economy (water quality, material flows and bioengineered food) with the aim to help them address RRI dimensions. The innovators are involved in a participatory process. With the first selected innovation – water sensors measuring water quality – Brussels cluster organised a series of participatory workshops, one with 4-helix stakeholders, one with civil society only (non-profit Brussels-based organisations) and two with citizens.

Catalonia is developing two citizen science pilots. The first pilot focuses on the co-design and implementation of an “interactive waste game” that will be used as a citizen science tool for improving the selective collection of municipal waste in the city of Mollet del Vallès (Barcelona). Students from 4 schools will be involved in data collection and analysis, and the results will be used by the municipality to better design the implementation of innovative selective collection systems in the municipality. The pilot is part of a Specialisation and Territorial Competitiveness Project (PECT). The second pilot tackles the invisibility, under-diagnosis and lack of research into endometriosis. By collecting ‘first-hand’ experiences and working together with patients and healthcare professionals, a policy brief will be co-created, addressed to policy makers and healthcare staff and officials, to improve the care and services for people suffering from endometriosis.

Sharing knowledge and opening a dialogue

Together we passed the first reporting period followed by a successful review meeting in June. Our first Policy Brief was published, outlining recommendations for policymakers willing to embark on citizen engagement actions for R&I grounded in the lessons learned from the project implementation in its first 15 months. Our work was presented during the cluster event on Institutional changes towards open science and societal engagement in research and innovation organized by REA.

TRANSFORM hosted a participatory lab ‘Citizen Engagement TRANSFORMing regional R&I policymaking’ during the European Week of Regions Cities (see the outcomes here). Moreover, project partners took part in more than 20 events at local, regional, national and European level, targeting main stakeholders – public authorities, NGOs, CSOs, research and academia, and the general public; presenting TRANSFORM activities, sharing the knowledge, project results and the potential and benefits of RRI and citizen engagement in the governance of regional R&I.

Together with OECD, the Lombardy cluster launched the Italian translation of the OECD report “Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave”, edited by the Giannino Bassetti Foundation, and presented during the launch event with representatives of TRANSFORM, OECD, JRC, Italian Ministry of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility, Lombardy region and Emilia Romagna region. The Italian version of the report “Innovazione nella partecipazione dei cittadini al decision making pubblico e nuove istituzioni democratiche. Cavalcare l’onda della deliberazione“ aims to contribute to spreading the culture of public deliberation in Italy and provide effective tools for citizen engagement in public policy making.

BUILDING SYNERGIES WITH OTHER PROJECTS

TRANSFORM has been exploring and building synergies with other projects, fostering exchange to maximise the impact. Our poster was presented during the NewHoRRIzon final conference and Catalonia’s Researchers Night 2021, we presented our activities in the GRACE final webinar series, and participated in two online webinars organised by TeRRItoria’ parter Arte targeting Italian stakeholders. TRANSFORM’s approach to RRI monitoring and evaluation was presented at a project webinar of MARIE.

In September, we took part in the SeeRRI final conference in Barcelona sharing our take on mutual learning and discussing the importance of cooperation among projects. Moreover, we contributed with our journey to the SeeRRI booklet: Bringing responsibility and RRI into regional planning – from theory to practice.

The Lombardy regional case was presented in the 12th edition of TeRRItoria’s #ResponsibleRegions online webinar series in December. `

TRANSFORM is also taking part in the monthly “SwafS14 Monitoring & Evaluation” meetings, promoted by the SUPER MoRRI project. During those meetings, we have been exchanging with several other SwafS-14 projects about experiences and best practices in fostering more open, transparent, and democratic R&I ecosystems in Europe. The cooperation resulted in the joint abstract “What is territorial RRI? A discussion of issues, tensions and lessons learned in monitoring and evaluation practices based on nine H2020 projects” which was selected for the REvaluation conference in Vienna.

What’s next? Stay tuned.. part 2 coming out next week.

The end of the year also meant the end of the first year of TRANSFORM. Looking back at 2020, we can for sure say that it was a successful year, despite challenging circumstances. We kicked off the project in the midst of the global pandemic, which in the end, accompanied us the whole year through and beyond. Although all activities and meetings happened in the virtual space, we managed to find a shared vision among the partners and launched the tasks as planned. So, what exactly have we been up to during this first year?

All regional clusters have been working towards the implementation of RRI into their S3 strategies using different methodologies:

Lombardy by implementing participatory agenda setting in the design of the next Three Years’ Strategic Plan for Research, Innovation, and Technology Transfer (PST);

Catalonia by integrating citizen science to transform selected pilot projects in the field of selective municipal solid waste collection, transforming them from the triple to the quadruple helix;

and Brussels-Capital by using design thinking for social innovation in the circular economy, awarding grants to support innovative ideas responding to the selected collective challenges.

Partners and clusters have engaged in a reflection process to better understand RRI and S3 within their regional settings in regular meetings and mutual learning workshops. These efforts resulted in the Report on cluster-specific societal, geographical, economic and environmental frameworks. Regional Think Tanks (bringing together local authorities, academia, research centres, businesses) were set up, providing a variety of views, know-how and priorities on regional R&I ecosystems, ensuring that different perspectives and needs are taken into account in the project activities and contributing to the co-creation of local indicators to measure and monitor the RRI performance of the regional governments. In addition, the Shared learning Action Plan was developed outlining the mutual learning and capacity building activities among and within clusters. The plan details how clusters will share updates on ongoing activities, pros and cons of the adopted methodological approaches, challenges to institutional changes, and impact of concrete changes achieved.

A comprehensive analysis of the project monitoring needs, regional specificities as well as available RRI indicators and evaluation practices fed into the development of a first version of the Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy.

In addition, we developed the visual identity, project website, video and took part in a number of events, such as the European Week of Regions, Pint of Science Festival in Brussels: ‘Shaping the city of tomorrow‘, Research, innovation and the common good webinar organised by Art-ER and the virtual exhibition of the 3rd Annual Citizen Engagement and Deliberative Democracy Festival organised by Joint Research Centre (JRC).

What's next?

In the second year of the project, we are moving towards implementation of citizen engagement on the ground, in the three regions – Lombardy, Catalonia and Brussels-Capital. This process will be complemented with regular monitoring and evaluation, and regular capacity building sessions among TRANSFORM partners, but also at local level with the various Think Tanks members. We will keep exploring synergies with other projects and initiatives, and to facilitate this process, we are planning to open a LinkedIn group to create a space to exchange ideas, share lessons learned as well as interesting results, and foster networking.

Wrapping up the second year of TRANSFORM – PART 2

Wrapping up the second year of TRANSFORM – PART 1

Wrapping up the first year of TRANSFORM

What's next?

Stay tuned!