Regional Governance of Responsible Research and Innovation in Norway

For å gjøre resultatene og resultatene fra forskning, utvikling og innovasjon (FUI)-aktiviteter utført i de norske regionene i samsvar med samfunnets verdier, allmennhetens interesser og etiske normer, er det nødvendig med en proaktiv styring av disse FUI-aktivitetene. En slik styringstilnærming må sikre at FUI-aktiviteter er transparente for publikum, inkluderer publikum for å være mer refleksive og forutseende om de etiske aspektene, og dermed responsive overfor samfunnet generelt. Prosjektet 'Regional Governance of Responsible Research and Innovation in Norway' har som mål å hjelpe fire regioner i Norge (Troms, Finnmark, Nordland, Trøndelag) til å oppnå høyere nivå av ansvarlig forskning og innovasjonsaktiviteter gjennom å dra nytte av resultatene fra EU-kommisjonen finansierte prosjektet RRI2Scale, og overføre prosjektets resultater til de fire nevnte norske regionene. Til dette formålet utnytter casestudien som er utført i prosjektet lærdommen fra RRI2Scale-prosjektet og gir anbefalinger for å håndtere det "regionale dilemmaet" rundt styringen av reindrift og utvikling av fornybar energi i de ovennevnte regionene.

Within the European context, Norway is widely known as a country in which further development of wind energy powerplants has slowed down significantly over the past few years mainly due to the social resistance from various groups of citizens. Among these, the dilemma around the interests of reindeer herding communities and wind energy companies had been a continuously debated case. The case study conducted within this project builds on the learnings from the European Commission-funded project RRI2Scale (2020-2022), which had 'governance of responsible research and innovation (RRI) at regional scale' at its core, and explores new regional governance approaches to address the mentioned regional dilemma through participatory governance. Besides elaborating on the methodological achievements of the RRI2Scale project (regarding participatory governance) which can eventually be implemented by the concerned regional authorities, the case study provides five distinct recommendations for addressing issues pertaining to different dimensions of regional governance in order to strengthen the RRI approach-driven features of the regional governance in the concerned regions. This is aimed to smoothen the process of implementation of innovative and sustainable (understood in comprehensive terms to include cultural sustainability) energy resources in the country without compromising the rights and interests of local communities.

As a H2020 project, RRI2Scale project mentions facilitating the widespread adoption of its results as the strategic target of its dissemination and exploitation activities. This makes the ambitions of the project perfectly in line with the purposes of the current "NFR Forsterkningsmidler" call. RRI2Scale project considers the following project-related information for dissemination to the project’s target groups: i) vision (objectives, strategic relevance) and key facts; ii) stakeholder engagement ctivities such as regional workshops and co-creation of regional agendas; iii) achievements and recommendations of the project; iv) events to disseminate the results; and v) the key project assets (such as its toolkit, online platform, and Regional Innovation Agendas). The ativities envisaged for the proposed project aim at undertaking the above-mentioned dissemination activities in four other Norwegian Counties (Oslo, Viken, Rogaland, and Trøndelag) in order to explicitly highlight and integrate the principles of RRI in the governance of research, technology development, and innovation activities related to the domains of energy, transport and intelligent city at those Counties. The involvement of the Vestland County Council as a partner in the RRI2Scale project will give the proposed project partners an opportunity to use the experiences from Vestland as a pilot stage for the implementation of the proposed project. In line with the call’s intended areas of support, the proposed reinforcement project plans to disseminate the results from RRI2Scale project in Norway through presenting the results of a case study on responsible governance of reindeer herding in Norway which has been subject of controversy in view of wind energy development in the country.