One Page Summary

The current institutional system of research and innovation has proven ineffective in solving the ‘grand challenges’ faced in social-ecological systems. RRI provides an alternative, transformational system where science and society take part in collaborative, transparent and inclusive research and innovation. RRI can respond to problems identified by the community and provide relevant and practically applicable solutions, but it requires promotion, support and facilitation.

For this challenge, Space Engagers (SE) proposes an online interactive mapping platform I-PRS (Informed – Problems, Research, Solutions) that promotes, supports and facilitates collaborative and transdisciplinary RRI. I-PRS is delivered as a responsive web-app accessible on all devices. Users will post geo-tagged observations under different themes relating to social-ecological systems to a shared map. Posts can prompt blogs that provide a ‘bigger picture’ response linking local with global systems; users can ‘like’ or share posts to social media; a multi-actor dialogue can be generated on any post or blog; and posts can prompt different stakeholders to connect and create new research projects in an online incubator where supports from ESSRG can be offered.

I-PRS will brings citizens, communities, researchers and policy-makers into one space, developing more co-operative relationships and revealing spatially distributed information that may otherwise be invisible. The innovation lies in the combination and evolution of emerging fields of citizen science, for example in the field of interactive mapping by integrating multiple interdependent themes and actively engaging users in the co-creation of solutions; and in the field of online collaborative research by using spatial data and facilitating the setting up and incubation of RRI projects that emerge from the collective intelligence of the map.

With I-PRS, ESSRG will
• enable a broad cross-section of society to get involved with RRI, including those who are typically marginalised or might not previously have been actively engaged with local issues;
• generate better awareness and knowledge among all stakeholders of local and real challenges that are being experienced in communities, and how these relate to global challenges;
• and build and support a diverse and collaborative community that can self-organise to enhance social innovation towards ecological sustainability and social justice.

I-PRS will provide ESSRG with clear metrics, e.g. from the number of users, posts, comments, identified problems, projects in incubation, or initiated projects. I-PRS can be easily replicated for different contexts and customers, and therefore widely adopted. It can generate and support collaborative and transdisciplinary RRI, ultimately driving change in the research and innovation system towards ecological sustainability and social justice. I-PRS can therefore contribute to solving the ‘grand challenges’ in social-ecological systems.