Contact Tracing Apps for the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Responsible Innovation Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about the first real opportunity to test the efficacy of the Responsible Research and Innovation framework or RRI in a global health crisis. This is in view of the bold new approaches to health research and innovation that the pandemic has paved the way for. One such approach is digital contact tracing application (CTA) and although contact tracing has been a fundamental part of infectious disease control for decades, this is the first time that this technique is being used in mobile applications. Based on a Multivocal Literature Review, the development of CTAs in four countries – France, Germany, Spain, and the UK – was assessed to understand how dimensions of RRI were operationalised. This chapter shows that although from 2011 RRI has been promoted as a governance approach for increasing societal desirability of the processes and products of science and technology, very little is known about how the framework is operationalised in a health crisis. Notwithstanding that RRI was not specifically referenced during the development of CTAs in France, the UK, Spain, and Germany, the analysis has identified some interesting linkage to this framework. It shows that although there were elements of anticipation, inclusive participation, and reflexivity, their operationalisation was inadequate, and this may have had some impact on the societal acceptance of CTAs in these countries.