Using the RRI Framework (Sheena Cruickshank)

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) is research that has a positive impact on society and is undertaken in the public interest. It is critical for research excellence and for maintaining public trust in research. Research can raise questions and dilemmas, and the use and impact of research findings and data can be unpredictable and unknown at the start of a project. 

The University of Manchester has developed a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) Framework to help researchers design and carry out responsible research and innovation. This Framework outlines guidance for researchers to ensure their research is open, trusted, engaged and impactful. What RRI means in practice will vary between disciplines and projects. As such, the Framework can be applied flexibly, and some areas may be more or less relevant to different projects.  

Professor Sheena Cruickshank, Immunologist in the School of Biological Sciences, found the areas of the RRI Framework valuable for guiding discussions with PhD students at the early stage of their project. In particular this was useful to encourage them to think early on about the ethical implications of their projects, who their research might affect, how it may be used, and about its reproducibility.  

Sheena said: “Using the headings of the RRI Framework was really helpful to structure early discussions about the ethical implications of the PGRs’ research. We often think about how to share data widely using FAIR principles, but it is less common for a PGR to give thought from the start of a project on how others may use their findings, how communities will use it, and what can be done with that work.”  

Sheena will be repeating the exercise with her PGRs at later stages, once their projects have grown and developed. She added: “When people think about research ethics they often think of forms, human samples, and animals testing. Often, we don’t think in terms of how people will use our data once it has been published. RRI helps us to think about that more broadly.” 

These conversations brought benefits both ways, helping Sheena herself to consider different considerations and implications of the groups’ research. For example, international PGRs experiences of different healthcare systems prompted consideration of new implications of the use of research findings in these different contexts.  

Sheena, who’s research focuses on how immune responses are started as a result of infection and/or inflammation induced by threats such as pollution damage, reflected on how the RRI Framework could help in the development of funding bids. Many funding calls increasingly require applicants to reflect on and evidence how they will embed a supportive and responsible research culture. In a recent large-scale centre bid, Sheena and her collaborators had to outline the support currently in place for RRI and other aspects of research culture, such as staff development and data governance at each partner institution, and how these would be developed and enhanced over the life of the centre. The RRI Framework could be a useful starting point for this, and Sheena recommends that others applying for funding consider using the Framework to help guide their thinking and develop funding application.