Ethics management and responsible research and innovation in the Human Brain Project

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) is a key concept in current discourses concerning research governance and policy. The practice of ethics management in the European Union (EU) Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship Human Brain Project (HBP) utilises a concept of meta-responsibility to further RRI. This chapter explains the theory and practice of meta-responsibility to demonstrate RRI in practice in the HBP. As a Flagship European Commission research project, the HBP represents a particular opportunity to espouse the best aspirations of the European research area. In this chapter, particular focus is given to RRI as it is theorised and implemented within the HBP. This chapter focuses specifically on the role and practice of ethics management in the RRI efforts of the HBP. However, it presents a truncated and incomplete view. This is unavoidable, given the complex nature of the area – the map is not the territory. Other perspectives are possible, from which other aspects of RRI, and of the HBP, might gain or lose emphasis. Nevertheless, here we present an ethics management perspective on, and role in, RRI so far in the HBP.