Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is all about developing innovations that are beneficial to society in ways that are both environmentally and economically sustainable. Placing widely shared values at the heart of innovation design is an effective strategy to this end. 

In the next  web lecture, we will discuss why and how to design for one such value: safety.

We will explain why it is so important that when you are in the business of research and innovation, especially regarding emerging technologies, you anticipate from the very first stage in your research and development (R&D) process onwards which risks might emerge in the context of your work, the product that you are working towards, or specific contexts of application your product might be used in. To do so, we will introduce you to the concept of Safe-by-Design and how this relates to RRI. Moreover, we will help you on your way towards practicing safe-by-design yourself, among other things, by directing you to an example of what this could look like in practice.

To summarize, the benefits of a Safe-by-Design approach are:

• • Prevention of injury and disease to those constructing, using or maintaining the product/structure,
  • Prevention of potential harm to humans or elements of the environment both during the manufacturing process and exposure to the product,
  • Improved usability and public acceptability of products, systems and facilities,
  • Improved productivity and resource efficiency, reduced costs (especially the health and environmental costs that are often externalized),
  • Better prediction and management of production and operational costs over the lifecycle of a product and ease in meeting compliance with legislation.