On Friday January 19th, the Muntgebouw in Utrecht was filled with the chatter of about 200 people, already active in the field of responsible innovation, or interested to join.

About half of the attendees represented government, a business or a societal organization. The other half of the crowd consisted of academic researchers, some of whom had also attended the scientific gathering on the previous day. This combination of backgrounds led to fruitful discussions and in some cases, to laying the foundations for new future collaborations.

Under the enthusiastic and well-informed leadership of host of the day Natasja van den Berg, participants actively got engaged in a dialogue between sciences, business and society about the added value of the NWO-MVI approach for responsible innovation.

Leading the troops

Peter Haring, Discover Director Foods at Unilever, made a powerful statement on why responsible innovation is the way to go: ‘Our customers currently aren’t asking for products developed along the lines of responsible innovation. Still, at Unilever we believe we should lead the troops when it comes to things like reducing waste, saving energy and improving personal health through foods. Not only because we think that in the future it will be essential to do so in order to survive as a company, but also because we believe it is our responsibility as a multinational to provide sustainable food that tastes good and does good.’

During multiple lectures, workshops and parallel sessions, participants got updated on the approach and results of recent NWO-MVI research projects; engaged in discussions about do’s and don’ts for cooperation between public and private partners; discovered the reasons why scientists, companies, NGO’s and governmental organisations invest time and money into this topic; and debated the future of responsible innovation.

• Watch the movie overview of the day!
• Conference Connecting Practices: insights from the industry
• The MVI approach: a gain for society
• Connecting practices: sure, but how?
• Conference Connecting Practices: presentations of research projects

Photography: Wil van der Voort (Beelding)