Responsible innovation in the Norwegian salmon farming industry: Grand Societal Challenges, Dilemmas and Improvements

Norwegian salmon farming companies are very influential in the increasingly global salmon farming industry. In 2018, the export value of farmed salmon from Norway was NOK 68 billion. The project studies dilemmas that arise between economic, environmental and social concerns in the salmon farming industry in Norway, Canada, Australia and Chile by mapping the global networks of leading Norwegian salmon farming companies. We intend to study intersections between salmon farming and local/regional/national conditions in the involved countries. In so doing we wish to identify tensions between economic, environmental and social dilemmas, and the solutions to these tensions by firms in different geographical locations. Furthering this, the project aims to facilitate co-creation of knowledge between different stakeholders towards improvement of innovation practices and their sustainability (i.e. responsibility) in different contexts. This is done by setting up Responsible Innovation Labs (in Norway and Chile) involving participating researchers, firms and suppliers, and customers, NGOs and regulating authorities. Central topics in the Labs will concern how to implement and adapt the UNs Sustainable Development Goals and linking solutions to context-specific challenges and solutions, aiming to spur responsible innovation practices in the industry. The project is led by prof. Arnt Fløysand, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Research partners in the project are University of Stavanger and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. In addition to a strong team of researchers, PhD students and postdoc students will be recruited. The project seeks to create novel theoretical, empirical and practical knowledge applicable for responsible innovation.

This project identifies a threefold knowledge need on responsible innovation in the Norwegian salmon farming industry, where we believe that new theoretical, empirical and practical knowledge is required. Theoretically, we believe it is needed to develop frameworks able to assess the economic, environmental and social dimensions of innovation and their interplay. In short, we argue that the RRI literature resembles a top-down perspective that focuses mainly on the public governance of research and innovation, while, conversely, the CSR-literature is a bottom-up perspective focused towards the actor-level and the strategies of firms. However, both literatures are normative and provide rather ‘flat’ and ‘universal’ insights into how e.g. public authorities, researchers or firms should act. Accordingly, we add the isight of Global Innovation Networks (GIN) to contextual the specificities of firms responsible innovation practices. Empirically, we argue that knowledge is needed on how salmon farming firms address dilemmas arising from innovations intended to solve Grand Societal Challenges, exemplified by the industry’s adaptation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We also hold that practical, co-created knowledge is needed on how practices in firms and the industry can be shifted towards more responsible innovation when Sustainable Development Goals of firms come into conflict between each other. In order to operationalise the mentioned theoretical, empirical and practical requirements coherently, we conduct a comprehensive discussion of responsible innovation (WP1), before mapping the networks and innovation activities of Norwegian salmon farming firms (WP2). In WP3, we investigate the interplay between economic, environmental and social dimensions of innovation, while WP4 investigates the effects of innovation on the economic performance of firms. Finally, WP5 improves responsible innovation practices in the industry through a Responsible Innovation Lab.