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New directions for involving citizens in research and innovations agendas

Setting directions for research and innovation is usually not a job for citizens. But the CIMULACT project has paved the way for involving citizens in the actual formulation of research and innovation agendas.   

 

”Projects like CIMULACT have made interaction with citizens possible” is stated by the EU Commission in the introduction of the Research and Innovation (R&I) Work Programme Horizon 2020.

Horizon 2020 expects to invest 30 billion Euros in R&I over the period 2018-2020 and is hereby the most powerful programme for setting directions for R&I in the EU. With the above statement the Commission acknowledges the integration of central aspects of visions for sustainable and desirable futures developed by citizens across Europe during the CIMULACT project. 

“We are happy to see that the EU Commission has listened to what European citizens find important to prioritise in research and innovation” said CIMULACT’s project coordinator Lars Klüver, from the Danish Board of Technology, who states he is proud to see three years of interaction with citizens, experts and stakeholders on the EU’s R&I agenda settings were useful for the Commission.

CIMULACT stands for ’Citizen and Multi-Actor Consultation on Horizon 2020’. The aim of the project has been to engage European citizens in the EU’s R&I agenda Horizon 2020 and, consequently, the preparation of the Framework Programme 9 Horizon Europe. 

Since the project was launched in 2015, thousands of citizens have been consulted along with experts and stakeholders. Together they formulated themes on which people from R&I communities can apply for funding through Horizon 2020.

The principle of engaging citizens in R&I is not new in the EU Commission, where engagement is a core  value and principle for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). But although it has been a high priority for the Commission to integrate citizens’ views in the R&I agenda, this was a difficult goal to reach.

CIMULACT acted as a lynchpin in making EU research agendas open to society, these being grounded in societal needs and demands. The OECD has also chosen CIMULACT as one of six good practice cases for engaging citizens in science.  

CIMULACT has demonstrated that it is relevant to engage citizens in defining R&I agendas, and, most importantly, that this is possible.

Project website:

Contact: info@cimulact.eu

CIMULACT major achievements:

• twenty-three citizen-based suggestions for Horizon 2020 topics 
  
• mentioned as source of input in the Horizon 2020 Work Programme (2018-2020) 
  
• presented in the Interim Evaluation of Horizon 2020 as significant contributor to Horizon 2020
  
• was chosen by OECD as good practice case for engagement of citizens in science
  
• outcomes remain relevant for the preparation of Framework Programme 9 – Horizon Europe
  
• developed eleven new or improved methods for engaging citizens in R&I.

The Edward de Bono Institute for the Design and Development of Thinking were the local partners in this H2020 project.