Compare methods

	Responsible Research and Innovation Assessment	Constructive Technology Assessment
Field	Science Technology Studies	Science Technology Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2013	1995
Originator	Jack Stilgoe, Richard Owen, Phil Macnaghten	Arie Rip & Johan Schot (Dutch CTA tradition)
Type	Normative governance and reflexive-assessment process	Co-evolutionary technology-shaping process
Seminal source	Stilgoe, J., Owen, R., & Macnaghten, P. (2013). Developing a framework for responsible innovation. Research Policy, 42(9), 1568-1580.	Schot, J., & Rip, A. (1997). The past and future of constructive technology assessment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 54(2-3), 251-268.
Aliases	RRI assessment, Responsible innovation framework, AIRR assessment	CTA, Constructive TA, Co-evolutionary technology assessment
Related	4	4
Summary	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.	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.