Innovation with and for society
The SMART-map project builds on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach, asking innovators to take into account potential implications and societal expectations in their work, and to adapt their business process accordingly. However, besides RRI, there are several ways for industrial and business players to embrace responsibility, ethical commitment and social impacts while pursuing innovation.
Social Innovation, Inclusive Innovation are just some of the most diffused terms and linked actions to align process and outcomes of innovation with societal needs, values and expectations. Furthermore, other established (as Corporate Social Responsibility or Life Cycle Assessment) or more recent (as B-Corp or Inclusive Business) approaches are becoming widespread pathways for companies and firms to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
The first CFT dialogue, named “Innovation with and for society”, aimed at exploring if all these methods stem from the same principles and if all these approaches can converge or integrate each other.
The event was organised by Fondazione Giannino Bassetti with the support of Aarhus University, Fraunhofer ISI and formicablu in Bologna on 20th April 2018. The discussion was conducted thanks to a successful ad hoc designed format, involving international participants with different backgrounds and expertises that ensured a proper and multifaceted debate.