Built in, not bolted on: Responsible Innovation in UK Centres for Doctoral Training - the new normal

During the last decade, responsible innovation (RI) has become increasingly embedded within the EU and UK research context, appearing with greater frequency in funding calls and policy spaces. As part of this embedding, in its 2018 funding call for Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) required RI training to be included in the programme for all doctoral students. The research detailed here engaged with Directors of CDTs during the first year of their new Centres to form a snapshot view of the nature and type of training that was being incorporated, and how this might affect the wider organization – in this case the university. Using an organizational learning lens, this paper empirically examines the work-in-progress of the RI training in CDTs to assess how new RI understandings are being created, retained, and transferred within the CDTs, and questions whether this process represents a programme of ‘institutionalisation’. The paper concludes that at present, institutionalisation is highly variegated, with greater organizational change required in order to truly embed RI mindsets.