In what ways does the engagement of citizens in research and innovation (R&I) contribute to bringing research results to society and adopting new innovative solutions to support the digital and green transitions? What are the benefits of participatory processes? What are commonly used methods and tools? What are key determinants of success and the main challenges? How to evaluate the outcomes of participatory processes?
A new study, commissioned by the Directorate-General Research and Innovation of the European Commission, looks at the evidence from a broad range of projects and best practices across the EU and internationally to respond to these questions. Developing a theoretical framework to explore the role of citizen engagement in knowledge valorisation, it analyses 60 case studies from 37 countries, from EU member states and outside the EU. Supported by experts and practitioners in citizen engagement and knowledge valorisation, the project carried out a unique analysis on the role of citizen engagement for knowledge valorisation.
Citizen engagement for knowledge valorisation may involve many different actors such as universities, research organisations, businesses, including Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs), local communities and municipalities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), citizens groups, social partners, arts and cultural institutions, with different competences and contributions. The evidence suggests that citizen engagement plays a key role in value creation from knowledge in many ways, notably by:
- the commercialisation and widespread adoption of innovative products, technologies or services that better respond to users’ needs
- creating value for society, e.g. when a solution is developed and taken up by public, community or societal actors
- informing policymakers, thereby influencing policies, public investment programmes or regulations to reflect citizens’ needs, ideas or perspectives
- raising awareness, cultivating skills and knowledge and developing new organisational models that instigate behavioural changes and transformations in society
Based on the evidence, the impacts of the participatory processes are analysed and the key elements of more (and less) successful approaches are investigated. The study proposes designing a strategy that combines the elements of engagement and value creation and describes some of its key elements. It also highlights some key characteristics common to best practices, such as:
- establishing trust among various stakeholders and within the research community and clarifying intellectual assets management for encouraging uptake
- accepting a certain level of flexibility (and failure), mitigated with risk management, in order to remain open to the unexpected outcomes of R&I processes in an open innovation setting
- adapting commonly used tools for citizen engagement to the local context, considering the overall dynamics of the communities that will be directly involved
- facilitating the process by professional organisations that can design and implement strategies for value creation with citizens that are adapted to the specific research needs and objectives
Lastly, the evidence collected points to a lack of consistent practices in employing a clearly defined measurement framework to assess the efficacy of participatory processes in value creation. To address this gap, the report presents a comprehensive framework for evaluating if and how participatory processes have led to knowledge valorisation and will be a valuable tool for both researchers and practitioners. This framework has been translated into a set of key performance indicators that can be tailored to meet the unique requirements of individual projects.
The evidence collected by the study has been used as additional input to the development of a Code of Practice on citizen engagement, which has been co-created with a Community of stakeholders and is planned to be adopted in early spring 2024.
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Survey results on the codes of practice
Communities of practice complete their work to co-create codes of practice.