REconciling sCience, Innovation and Precaution through the Engagement of Stakeholders

ended

RECIPES seeks to address the highly debated question as to how to protect health and safety of persons and the environment whilst promoting innovation. RECIPES is pioneering because of its a ground-breaking and interdisciplinary endeavour involving the integration of social and legal discipline and based on co-creation with policy-makers and other stakeholders. It aims to reconcile science, innovation and precaution to foster social awareness and responsibility in the EU in research and innovation by developing new empirically sound and theory informed institutional design and tools. It will build effective cooperation between science and society and link scientific excellence with social awareness and responsibility. In order to fully grasp the complexity and the controversies around the precautionary principle, RECIPES will examine the application of the precautionary principle in international treaties, EU level and five countries. It will also carry out eight case-studies, so as to understand and explain the potential differences in the application of the precautionary principle in the different cases, which reflects the particular context of the case and reasoning behind the decision to invoke the precautionary principle. RECIPES will develop new tools for the application of the precautionary principle taking into account the innovation principle. It will involve engagement of stakeholders in all stages of the research. It will moreover develop mechanisms for public involvement in research and innovation. It will develop scenarios for the future application of the precautionary principle and from there, it will co-create a new approach to the precautionary principle and new tolls to help policymakers and other stakeholders to assess risks and uncertainty and allow decisions to be made on a case-by-case basis, responding to the question how to responsibly decide on precaution and innovation.