Apr 15, 2022
This event focused on co-creation of activities for achieving future scenario envisaged through the reflection and co-design process for RRI ‘anchor’ activities targeting territory of the Republic of Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Date: 01.04.2022
Location: Library of Faculty of Philosophy, University of Banja Luka
Organisers: University of Banja Luka, RTD Health Cluster
Who attended the event?
The event gathered 7 stakeholders (apart from the WBC-RRI.NET project representatives) coming from the academia, government, secondary schools, business support organisations and civil society. Most of the participants had already attended the 1st workshop, which contributed better work on planning activities.
What happened at the event?
Andjela Pepic, from the University of Banja Luka, firstly welcomed and introduced the participants, and then followed with a brief overview of the WBC-RRI.NET project and the selected scenario. She emphasized the importance of co-design and co-creation for successful implementation of activities aiming towards the embedding of RRI into the R&I ecosystem.
After that, participants split into four groups and started working on defining activities, indicators, challenges and mitigation measures. Based on the previously determined goals for the envisaged scenario, the participants created activities which were presented to other representatives, hence offering a possibility of active participation in additions and changes of the planned activities by other groups.
Below we highlight some key points related to the goals:
Goal 1: By 2024, at least 2 RPOs/HEIs in Republic of Srpska transformed their institutional practices by introducing the tailor-made codes and ethics standards ensuring research ethics.
Participants designed seven activities focused on training events on academic integrity and ethic issues in research for professors and students, creating and adopting documents and pilot project realisation at two faculties. Some of the risks for realisation are time required to adopt document and low level of implementation of the documents after adoption. The mitigation for these are timely communication and clearly defined work plan.
Goal 2: By 2024, STEAM educators in at least 5 secondary schools across Republic of Srpska improved their teaching approach towards (gender) inclusive STEAM education through science education platform and workshops.
Stakeholders envisaged six activities focused on promotion of (gender) inclusive STEAM education, workshops for professors and students and establishing a platform for STEAM education with active use by professors and students. Some of the possible challenges in implementation could be low level of interests of schools to participate, but with promotion focused on benefits of STEAM education, there could be an expected increased interest.
Goal 3: By 2024, at least 1 RPO/HEI in Republic of Srpska embraced institutional practice of regularly depositing research outputs in open access digital repository.
Four activities related to the goal include informing Faculties on possibilities for depositing research outputs in open access digital repository, training for librarians and professors for depositing research outputs and networking two separated digital repositories on UNIBL. Due to technical impossibility of networking repositories, they can be adapted or upgraded.
Goal 4: By 2024, the RFO MNRVOID funding schemes for research and innovation will integrate criteria on open science and ethics.
Four activities are designed, out of which the main ones are workshops with two ministries (MNRVOID, MEE) with focus on making changes in bylaws integrating criteria on open science and ethics.
Goal 5: Position RRI as a cross-cutting issue in regional Smart Specialisation Strategy.
The focus of activities designed by stakeholders for achieving this goal is on engaging project team in the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) development process, mainly through meetings and public consultations event that is planned to be organized at the University of Banja Luka in collaboration with the competent Ministry. One of the risks that can extend the time of Strategy adoption are the General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, it is necessary to hold a series of meetings to highlight the importance of embedding the RRI concepts in the Smart Specialisation Strategy.
Finally, the planned activities are subject to adjustments in the upcoming period through the consultation process on the draft document. intended to be further shared with the stakeholders prior its finalization by the end of April 2022.
