Responsible Research and Innovation with a Maximin Principle

University of Brighton Philosophy Society lecture by Professor of Moral Philosophy Doris Schroeder of the University of Central Lancashire.

Abstract

From 2014 to 2020, the European Union (EU) will spend 80 billion Euros on research funding. Horizon 2020 is a protected program, which will not be targeted for budget cuts.

In preparation for Horizon 2020, the concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI) has been developed within the European Commission "to align the outcomes of research and innovation with the values, needs and expectations of European society" (Fabbri). A prominent definition of RRI from the academic community is "a collective commitment of care for the future through responsive stewardship of science and innovation in the present" (Owen, Stilgoe, MacNaghten, Gorman, Fisher, Guston).

This paper will:

1. show that RRI is part of a movement, which could be called the global impact movement (the British REF is another example);

2. argue that the concept of pro-poor innovation - understood as a Rawlsian Maximin principle - should be added to this global impact movement, as is already the case in some government policies from China and India;

3. argue that only by adding a Maximin Principle to RRI can the gap to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 27(1) be bridged.

Prof. Doris Schroeder, whose background is in philosophy, politics and economics, is Director of the Centre for Professional Ethics at the University of Central Lancashire and Adjunct Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University in Australia (2012-2017). Her research interests include international justice, human rights, dignity, and benefit sharing. She co-ordinates a global RRI network with European Commission funding (http://www.progressproject.eu/).