In March 2026, the RI-ProT team took part in the 1st Grand Challenges Conference of the Berlin University Alliance, contributing in various roles.

As a member of the conference’s scientific committee, Dagmara Weckowska chaired two sessions in the track “Responsible Innovation in Times of Transformation”, where presenters from Berlin and beyond shared their research and perspectives on responsible innovation. These sessions included two presentations by members of our team. Luisa Lallinger presented the radar method developed within the project in her talk titled “Responsible Innovation Radar: Anticipating and Reflecting Impacts of Protein Innovations.” Rosalyn Old’s presentation addressed the challenging question “What Does Responsible Innovation Mean in the Context of Protein Transitions?”, calling for more inclusive deliberation on responsibility in this field.

 

In parallel sessions, Martina Schäfer discussed the transdisciplinary approach of the RI-ProT project in her talk “Transdisciplinary Knowledge Integration – Method Use in a Project on Protein Transition.” Harry Hoffmann shared insights from policy-focused analyses in his presentation “Alternative Food Proteins in Germany: An Integrated System and Policy Analysis.”

 

Among the highlights of the conference were two thought-provoking keynote lectures: Phil Macnaghten’s “Responsible Innovation in Times of Transition” and Andy Stirling’s “Roles of Science & Technology in Addressing Societal Challenges: Sustainability, Responsibility & Democracy.” Phil Macnaghten outlined the origins and rationale of responsible innovation (RI) as a way to align science with societal values and address grand challenges. He discussed its uneven uptake and highlighted three modalities of doing RI—Mode 1 (Enabler), Mode 2 (Critic), and Mode 3 (Disrupter)—in shaping science for better futures. Andy Stirling challenged dominant perspectives on transformation by asking what we are trying to transform and for whom. He argued that prevailing “sustainable technology” frameworks are often too narrow, prioritizing control while overlooking alternative pathways, and emphasized responsibility as opening up hidden sustainability politics and rebalancing governance by enabling more care-centered approaches to innovation. Dagmara Weckowska provided a response to Andy Stirling’s keynote, highlighting the contributions of the RI-ProT project to ongoing debates about responsibility in science and technology, particularly in the field of alternative proteins.

It was a pleasure and an honor to engage in intensive discussions across disciplines, institutions, and sectors on responsibility in science and innovation in Berlin!