Conference on Responsible Research and Innovation Held

The conference titled "Responsible Research and Innovation - a Requirement for Excellence in Research" was held on 7 April 2022 in Novi Sad, in a hybrid format, i.e., live at the University of Novi Sad and online via the Zoom platform.

The event, organized within the Horizon 2020 project WBC-RRI.NET, in which the University of Banja Luka is part of a consortium, is dedicated to the concepts of responsible research and innovation, as well as presenting the situation in this area in the Western Balkans.

The focus of the plenary lectures and moderated discussions were issues of ethics in research and ethics governance systems in higher education institutions and research organizations. 

Isidoros Karatzas, Head of the Research Ethics and Integrity Sector at the European Commission, gave a plenary lecture on the ethical aspects of research, with a special focus on those aspects of Horizon Europe projects and concerns about ethical issues to be addressed by participating countries that are not members of the European Union. 

The current situation in ethics governance systems in higher education institutions and research organizations as well as significant efforts to make ethics in research a part of research practice and system solutions in higher education institutions and research organizations were presented in the discussion on this topic, moderated by the Head of the Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer Centre of the University of Banja Luka Anđela Pepić, MA, and with Vice-Dean for Scientific Research and International Cooperation of the Faculty of Philosophy of our higher education institution Prof. Siniša Lakić, PhD, as one of the panellists.

After the plenary part of the conference, the work continued in three working groups with special thematic focuses. These groups are as follows: Gender Equality and Ethics, Science Education and Public Engagement, and Open Science and Open Access. 

In addition to lecturers from the European Commission, representatives of research organizations and institutions of the Western Balkans, as well as Europe, the conference was attended on Zoom by Anđela Pepić, MA, Prof. Siniša Lakić, PhD, Senior Scientific Research and Development Associate Dragana Radulović, MA, and Project Assistant Milica Marić.

Meeting of the consortium representatives 

The day after the conference, on 8 April, a meeting of the WBC-RRI.NET project consortium representatives was held in Novi Sad, who presented the implemented and planned activities within the project. Anđela Pepić, MA, also attended the meeting.