The project develops a framework for a responsible transition of traditional industry regions into digitalised industry R&I ecosystems. The elaboration of this framework will be performed together with the impacted industries, the influential territorial authorities, and the affected citizens. The creation of strategies and a concept will be conducted for implementing resilient R&I ecosystems for digitalised industries in traditional industry territories. Resilient R&I ecosystems requires taking into account a high degree of openness, democratic accountability, and responsiveness to the needs of the addressed industries and society in the considered regions.

The overarching objective of FACE-IT is to enable adaptive co-management of social-ecological fjord systems in the Arctic in the face of rapid cryosphere and biodiversity changes. The project will identify ways to manage the impacts of climate change on the cryosphere and marine biodiversity, and the interaction with other drivers of change. FACE-IT will contribute to IPCC assessments as well as key Sustainable Development Goals. The concept of FACE-IT rests on a comparison of selected Arctic fjord systems at different stage of cryosphere loss in Greenland, Svalbard and Finnmark, Northern Norway. The underlying two-pronged hypothesis is that the biodiversity of Arctic coastal zones is changing in accordance with the rates of cryosphere changes, and that these changes affect local communities, food production, livelihoods and other ecosystem services. FACE-IT approaches European Arctic fjords as local social-ecological systems. It gathers a strong interdisciplinary team of internationally recognised experts from both natural and social sciences. FACE-IT is organized in eight interdisciplinary work packages focusing on the drivers of change (WP1), their effects on biodiversity (WP2), ecosystem functioning (WP3), food provision and indigenous livelihoods (WP4), nature-based tourism (WP5), the co-production of knowledge to identify governance strategies for adaptive co-management (WP6), and public outreach and policy input (WP7), and project management (WP8). It includes the participation of Arctic stakeholders to ensure that Indigenous and local knowledges, perceptions and concerns about ongoing changes are taken into account in defining innovative and adaptive co-management approaches towards a more sustainable future. In this way FACE-IT will deliver significant contributions towards the implementation of the new integrated EU policy for the Arctic.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a key enabling technology in high value manufacturing. The global AM market is on the rise and in 2016 the industry was valued at $6 billion with 93% being attributed to industrial applications. Evolving novel innovation networks, perfectly represented by the emerging, rather complex and highly dynamic AM industry sector, are frequently characterised by entirely new business models, high development and adaption rates, as well as strong technology diffusion within the economy. I AM RRI will investigate the AM innovation network in order to facilitate a better understanding and the modelling of the dynamics of its complex web of innovation value chains including openings for responsible research and innovation (RRI). In-depth investigation of the AM innovation network, accompanied by open stakeholder and foresight processes, will establish a comprehensive knowledge base and thorough understanding of the network’s components, processes and interconnections, forming the foundation for building a dynamic model. The model will allow deepening the understanding of the AM innovation system even further, and to simulate/govern rapidly developing and complex future changes of the network and its crisscrossing value chains. As core component of I AM RRI, use cases for automotive and medical AM application will be conducted in order to refine the model and to showcase its applicability and adaptability. The I AM RRI outcomes developed in the course of I AM RRI will be made available to the broad open science community and to stakeholders/policy makers, strengthening research and business, and fostering the evolvement of other novel innovation networks. Strategic guidelines will be defined to initiate institutional change. Identified RRI openings within the AM innovation network will support smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe. I AM RRI will promote AM in Europe as a globally competitive, innovative and world leading key technology.

SeeRRI establishes a foundation for building self-sustaining R&I ecosystems in Europe by developing a framework for integrating RRI approach into regional development policies in 3 European territories: B30 Area (ES), Polymer and Mechatronic Cluster (AU), and Nordland Region (NO). To self-sustain, SeeRRI ecosystem will be “healthy”, i.e. adaptive, resilient, reproducible, continuous learning, and open or closed when needed. With 12 quadruple-helix partners from government authorities, clusters and SMEs, academics, and civil organization, SeeRRI will build an integrated framework based on literature review and co-creation with the relevant stakeholders. By mapping the territorial R&I ecosystem, SeeRRI will understand the supporting conditions for R&I and identify the stakeholders that will be involved to formulate a variety of scenarios for building a self-sustaining ecosystem in their territories. The engaged stakeholders will gain awareness and insights while engaging in creative collaboration using workshops and open-labs, thus will function as multipliers and promote RRI principles in their territories and beyond. The input from stakeholders will contribute to defining and validating a framework for self-sustaining R&I ecosystems developed by the project team, which will generate concrete activities to be implemented. Furthermore, SeeRRI will evaluate the activities carried out in the pilot territories and assess their impact at EU level, thus offering concrete guidelines for policies, suggesting conditions and governance structures for the R&I ecosystems with a roadmap tool identifying RRI openings in Smart Specialisation process. Finally, SeeRRI will establish a Network of Affiliated Territories, i.e. other territories with a composition that could mirror SeeRRI ecosystem, to help contribute, improve, and apply SeeRRI framework. Learning and best practices will be transferred across territories. This will facilitate its scaling-up at European and global level.