Responsible innovation ecosystem governance: socio-technical integration research for systems-level capacity building

Calls for a ‘systemic turn’ in Responsible Innovation and Responsible Research and Innovation (R(R)I) stem from unease with engagement research. Engagement research structures science-society interactions to align research and innovation processes with societal considerations. As this research often focuses on micro practices of actors at discrete events or in bounded environments, it tends to neglect the systemic nature of these processes. We introduce the innovation ecosystem concept to account for complexity, openness, and mutual learning in responsible innovation governance. Responsible innovation ecosystem governance refers here to the capacity of diverse actors to reflect on socio-ethical horizons in different streams of the ecosystem. For systems-level capacity building, we discuss three adaptations of Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR): STIR workshops curated by engagement agents, multi-stream engagement through brokers, and a multi-method research design addressing networked responsibility. This methodological design introduces an ecosystem perspective in R(R)I engagement research.