• NISHI Chihiro
  Assistant Professor, Center for Learning Support and Faculty Development, Doshisha University
  Researcher, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University

The discussion on "Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)" started around 2010, mainly in Europe. RRI seeks to promote new research and innovation by engaging discussion with diverse stakeholders on issues related to research, innovation, and associated societal challenges, and to take care of the future together. This approach has been central to our R&D project entitled "Development of an RRI Practice Model for Molecular Robotics Premised on Researchers Autonomy". A distinctive feature of our Project is that researchers developing molecular-scale technologies, known as molecular robotics, are actively engaged in the societal aspects of their work and seeking opportunities to interact with members of society. Researchers from humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary sciences are also involved in this Project, and molecular robotics researchers collaborate with them to realize the goal of "researchers autonomy", as indicated by the name of the project.

Practicing RRI demands participation of a broad range of stakeholders to discussion. Stakeholders in science and technology include people from different professions and industries, and their values need to be mixed and responded in the discussion. It is also important that the stakeholders include not only experts but also citizens. While experts are expected to contribute to the discussion by drawing on specialized knowledge gained through their professional roles and experiences, citizens offer different kinds of knowledge and perspectives shaped by their lives and social experiences. Given that science and technology are used not only by the experts who develop them, but are often applied in society in diverse and sometimes unexpected ways, the feedbacks from citizens are essential. Efforts have been made to promote such discussion with citizens in molecular robotics as well1,2. However, as has been pointed out, it is not an easy task. The difficulty comes from the diversity of citizens. It is evident that each individual has a different knowledge and perception, influenced by factors such as regional and generational backgrounds. This points to the need to be as inclusive as possible, rather than arbitrary selecting whose voice should count.

Thinking about diversity, it is important to recognize that it also exists in research activities and that researchers come from a wide range of disciplines. In the field of molecular robotics, those involved in research and development come from a variety of disciplines, including engineering, biology, and information science. In addition, for the effort to realize RRI in molecular robotics, researchers from humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary fields are working together with their counterparts in the natural sciences. When researchers from different fields meet and discuss, those who tend to be considered merely as "researchers" become exposed to the cultures of other fields and encounter terminology and expressions that are unique to them. As a result, the discussion inevitably involves the challenge of communicating with others, while respecting their unique cultures and languages. If researchers in the field of molecular robotics can reach a common ground through such constructive discussion, their communication with a wider range of stakeholders, including citizeins, will likely be much more effective.

Just as communication with citizens is, arriving at a common ground among experts is a challenge of science and technology communication. And this is why our Project has developed a support tool to promote communication between researchers in the natural sciences, who strive for "researchers autonomy," and those in humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary fields, with a focus on the culture and language of the latter. This effort culminated in the production of "A Reference Book for 'Researcher Autonomy'"3. The final version, completed in the fall of 2024, provides a concise and comprehensive summary of the ideas relating to the practices of science, discussions about scientific research and society, and many other topics. Its goal is to help researchers and students in molecular robotics, as well as those in a wide range of natural sciences, to develop a common understanding with researchers in humanities and social sciences, which have long studied the social aspects of science and technology. We hope our book "A Reference Book for 'Researcher Autonomy'" will contribute to realizing RRI in the future by getting researchers in the natural sciences and those in humanities and social sciences closer than before.

Bibliography

1. Molecular Robot Ethics Seminar (2022) "Summary of Dialogue on Molecular Robots, 2020 Edition," CBI Society Publishing
2. Molecular Robot Ethics Seminar (2022) "Genetic Literacy for Dialogue," CBI Society Publishing
3. Chihiro Nishi, Mariko Sakuragi, Koichi Mikami (2024) "A Reference Book for 'Researchers Autonomy'"

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