RRI-Roadmap companies
Innovation for a safe and better society!
The overarching goal of the PRISMA project is:
- To help companies to implement Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in their innovation and social responsibility strategies,
- To provide evidence on how RRI can improve innovation processes and products
- To show how RRI leads to trust from society (thus strengthening the market position of companies).
- To develop with standardization bodies a process standard for RRI: Responsible (Research and) Innovation
The project has develop a roadmap, consisting of 6 steps, to formulate a roadmap including a template. In addition, the project has developed a list of KPIs companies can use to formulate or to measure (intended) impact.
This approach is now a pre-standard) of European Committee for Standardization (final review: April 2021).
PRISMA also wins the ‘Best Responsible Innovation Case’ during the ETHAC conference 2019
Below you will find all the information including 2 animations.

Roadmap for companies
Based on the experience in eight pilots with companies active in different sectors and technologies, PRISMA developed a practical guideline / roadmap for companies aiming to strengthen consideration of ethical, legal and social impacts (ELSI) aspects in their technology and product development. The PRISMA exemplary roadmap is structured on a set of acknowledged RRI principles, that are operationalized based on three key actions:
- Integrate analysis of ethical, legal and social impacts since the early stages of product development (Reflection and Anticipation)
- Perform stakeholder engagement to inform all phases of product development (Inclusiveness)
- Integrate monitoring, learning and adaptive mechanisms to address public and social values and normative principles in product development (Responsiveness).
Key Performance Indicators
To embed RRI into business strategies of companies, it is of crucial importance to engage all relevant internal stakeholders. First, you need the commitment of CEOs to get things on the agenda. Next, you should also focus on engagement from other internal key actors and the workforce.
This is easier said than done! But a powerful tactic to kick off the discussions is to review the existing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the company. How can they be linked to indicators for RRI?
We used this approach in the PRISMA project. As part of the project, we developed a checklist of KPIs for innovation from both an organizational or business point of view and the RRI-perspective. This list is applied to review existing KPIs of the company.
More info on the KPIs and how to use them
- The monetary value of the market (existing or potential market) for this project is large, or
- Marketing and communication of the outcome of this project will emphasize heavily the societal benefits (health, sustainability) of the project.
These can be linked or integrated with KPIs for RRI like, for example:
- Societal values (privacy, safety, health, security, data ownership, etc.) are actively included in the design process of this project, or
- Within this project we apply risk identification and risk management strategies to adjust the product.
Hence, from the stack of 92 KPIs, a company’s representatives (managers, researchers / scientists, innovation project participants) can select which KPIs are relevant by categorizing them into three categories
- Category 1: Yes if the certain KPIs are relevant
- Category 2: Maybe if certain KPIs may not be relevant at present, but may be relevant in the near future
- Category 3: No if certain KPIs are irrelevant both at present and in the future
KPIs that fall into Category 3 (No) can be crossed out. The relevant KPIs are those that you have categorized in the first two categories: Yes and Maybe.
Animation: how to formulate a roadmap? The 6 steps explained.
Animation: how to select KPIs?