Sustainability, Vol. 12, Pages 827: Experimenting with RRI tools to Drive Sustainable Agri-Food Research: The SASS Case Study from Sub-Saharan Africa (Sustainability)

The need to develop experimental tools for a responsible research and innovation (RRI)framework is relevant for managing research agendas and policy making that seriously take intoaccount the complex conditions of innovation development (linked to multidisciplinarity andinteraction processes) between the researchers and their fieldwork activities. The adoption of an RRIframework is even more important for multidisciplinary and complex issues, such as the agri-foodsystem. In this context, the SASS (Sustainable Agri-food Systems for Sustainable Development(SASS) project represents a good example for verifying the application of the RRI strategy in a variedresearch group committed to the development of sustainable agri-food systems in Sub-SaharanAfrica. The project, which involves more than 50 researchers from different fields of knowledge andtheoretical backgrounds, showed the importance of the processes of reflection, re-driving, andconvergence in the definition of research objectives and strategies. This process started byexperimenting with new dedicated RRI tools in order to allow interactions between the researchers,including exchanging their experience in data collection and theoretical reflection development.With respect to this analysis, it was interesting to analyze how the RRI tools and strategies havebeen activated between researchers and different stakeholders, generating reflections capable of readaptingthe results towards shared and accessible innovation for the extended society. Followingthe discussion based on the description of the SASS-RRI agenda tools and following an internalverification given from an RRI-based web survey, this contribution provides new insights, in termsof tools and strategies, to promote and refine RRI approaches. This work underlines how RRImethods have promoted internal and external interactions to connect the research objectivestowards a model of open innovation.Highlights:RRI in research resolves problems by transforming scientific results in innovationsRRI in multidisciplinary teams promotes re-driving/convergence of research aimsRRI tools and strategies influence research outcomes and policy making on wide topics