CSIRO has released a new report Responsible Innovation at CSIRO detailing how the national science agency is designing and delivering leading-edge research to benefit everyone.
The agency said while transformational research is urgently needed to address myriad challenges, sometimes future science can cause disruption, inequity, and uncertainty.
“It’s crucial for us to look ahead and meaningfully examine the social and ethical risks and opportunities of new technologies,” CSIRO said.
“Responsible innovation is much more than a set of guiding principles for science. Its applications range from emerging digital technologies like AI and quantum, to novel genetic technologies in fields like healthcare and manufacturing, and environmental-scalable solutions for our changing climate.”
For CSIRO, responsible innovation is a "rigorous, robust, and repeatable scientific process that can be applied across diverse fields, with the specificity needed to yield useful insights".
CSIRO said this helps it prioritise which technologies it will develop, what controls are needed, and potential risks. It helps demarcate between the desirable and the unacceptable outcomes of future science, it said.
Over the past five years, CSIRO's Responsible Innovation Future Science Platform has focused on building foundational capabilities and methodologies to advance two science frontiers: responsible prediction, and social and ethical risk management.
Responsible prediction explores new ways to model and measure social systems and conditions. The aim is to build a more accurate understanding of the social dynamics which impact how new science and technology land in the world.
Social and ethical risk management seeks to demonstrate more systematic and applied scientific approaches. This will ultimately aid in establishing criteria that can reliably identify socially responsible science and technology.
Ultimately, CSIRO says, its responsible innovation research is "a way for industries, communities, and end users of future science and technology to understand its impacts on their lives. It gives people a voice to shape scientific innovation for the better – right from the start of the research and development process".
If future science and technology is developed outside the guardrails of responsible innovation, the risks are threefold:
- A ‘tick box’ approach to important social and ethical issues, which fails to proactively capture the diverse needs and values of the Australian people.
- Missed opportunities to realise positive, meaningful outcomes – or worse, the potential to create or exacerbate social inequities.
- A breakdown in public trust, where investment in science does not yield acceptable solutions.
As Responsible Innovation Research Director Justine Lacey says, “when it comes to doing responsible innovation, we can’t afford not to.”
Responsible innovation is already delivering invaluable insights across areas as diverse as emerging digital technologies like AI and quantum, novel genetic technologies in fields like healthcare and manufacturing, and environmental-scale solutions for the changing climate.
"For example, our researchers are helping Australian industries get ready for quantum, by working across key industries to identify weak spots before the technology matures.
"We are also testing new methodologies for predicting social conflict around potentially contentious technologies like offshore wind. This could have major bene fits for finding low-conflict pathways to introduce innovation.
"What’s more, we are collaborating with colleagues across CSIRO to research how Australians respond to disruptive food technologies, like 3D printed food and precision fermentation. Understanding what causes the ‘yuck’ factor will help bring new products to market to meet Australia’s growing nutritional needs.
"All of this, so that our investments in future science and technology have real and lasting impact, delivering outcomes that are meaningful, fit-for-purpose, and needed by Australian society," Lacey said.
