Compare methods

	Constructive Technology Assessment	Responsible Research and Innovation Assessment
Field	Science Technology Studies	Science Technology Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1995	2013
Originator	Arie Rip & Johan Schot (Dutch CTA tradition)	Jack Stilgoe, Richard Owen, Phil Macnaghten
Type	Co-evolutionary technology-shaping process	Normative governance and reflexive-assessment process
Seminal source	Schot, J., & Rip, A. (1997). The past and future of constructive technology assessment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 54(2-3), 251-268.	Stilgoe, J., Owen, R., & Macnaghten, P. (2013). Developing a framework for responsible innovation. Research Policy, 42(9), 1568-1580.
Aliases	CTA, Constructive TA, Co-evolutionary technology assessment	RRI assessment, Responsible innovation framework, AIRR assessment
Related	4	4
Summary	Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) is an approach to assessing technology that seeks to influence its design and development, not merely to forecast its impacts after the fact. By broadening the design process to feed societal aspects back to engineers and decision-makers early—while the technology is still malleable—CTA aims to manage the co-evolution of technology and society and to soften the Collingridge dilemma, the bind in which a technology's effects are easy to change before they are known and hard to change once they are.	Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) assessment is an approach to governing science and innovation that asks not only whether a technology works but whether it is desirable, and seeks to align research and innovation with the values, needs, and expectations of society. The influential Stilgoe-Owen-Macnaghten framework operationalises this through four dimensions—anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, and responsiveness (AIRR)—that are built into the innovation process so that direction and purpose, not just risk and product, become objects of deliberate care.