Dr. René von Schomberg

René von Schomberg, Ph.D. is an agricultural scientist, a science and technologies studies specialist, and philosopher working for the European Commission on research and innovation policy. He holds Ph.D.s from The University of Twente, the Netherlands (Science and Technology Studies) and J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main (Philosophy). He has been an European Union Fellow at George Mason University, USA in 2007 and has been with the European Commission since 1998, where he is now leading a team on Open Science. He is also guest professor at Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany, where he is leading seminars on Scientific Controversy in Social Context.

René was at the origin of the current concept of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Specifically, he defines RRI as follows: “a transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view on the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process, and its marketable products (in order to allow a proper embedding of scientific and technological advances in our society)”.

René is author/(co)editor of 14 books, most recently: A vision of Responsible Innovation, 2013; Towards Responsible Research and Innovation in the ICT and Security Technologies Fields, 2011; Understanding Public Debate on Nanotechnologies, coedited with Sarah Davies, 2010; From the Ethics of Technology towards an Ethics of Knowledge Assessment, and Implementing the Precautionary Principle, Perspectives and Prospects, coedited with E. Fisher and J. Jones, E.Elgar Publishers, 2006.

Read his blog. Visit his Facebook page and his LinkedIn profile. Follow him on Twitter. You can listen to his interview about RRI. Visit Google Scholar for more information about his publications.