This report provides an overview of the GoNano Winter School, covering the objectives, planning and execution, and presenting the material used and gathered at each phase.
The GoNano Winter School was held on 4-7 February 2020 and hosted by the project partner RMIT, at its European hub in Barcelona. This activity formed part of the project’s training and educational efforts, targeting Masters and PhD students as an important group for building a future community of practice that is supportive and capable of adopting Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) practices. The overall objectives of the winter school were therefore to: attract this target audience; teach them the skills and knowledge required to understand, operationalise and implement RRI and co-creation processes; assess their outputs; and evaluate their learning experience.
Ultimately, a total of 35 individuals from a variety of backgrounds and countries participated in the winter school. Over the four days of the winter school, these participants were introduced to the key concepts of RRI and the process of co-creation, and how they can be used to add value to research and innovation activities. They were then tasked with applying their newfound knowledge to their own research topics, having been provided the tools to critically reflect on the purpose of their research, its context, and its wider reaching effects and impact on society.
At the end of the event, participants’ feedback comments indicated that they found the GoNano Winter School experience to be both enlightening and beneficial, with their expectations met or surpassed and most aims and objectives achieved. This was mainly due to the open and enthusiastic attitudes of both participants and teaching staff, which produced a positive environment that was fully conducive to the creative learning experience we had set out to achieve. Overall, the GoNano Winter School was considered to be a huge success not only on its own, but also for the project, especially as many participants left with the intention of continuing their involvement with the GoNano project and expressed their desire to adapt their research approaches to be more aware of and responsive to societal inputs.
Read more about the winter school in D6.3 – Report collecting the materials and participant list from the Winter School
*The document may not be seen as an official deliverable of the GoNano project as it has not yet been approved by the European Commission