Lessons Learned Relating to all challenges

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Milestone 1

  • Keep in mind the local context to answer local needs and specificities;
  • Organise carefully the workshop phases for successfully meeting the objectives and for engaging all participants;
  • Use dialog for initiating collaboration among private landowners and municipalities;
  • Find a topic which will attract different stakeholders;
  • Explore the questions that are relevant to the real-life concerns of the group.

Milestone 2

  • Provide a good incentive and personal benefits to motivate people to attend the workshop(s) and processes;
  • Use using storytelling to describe the challenge with clear and concrete examples;
  • Present the topic approached from the beginning of the workshop;
  • Explain the challenge in an inclusive, strategic and broad manner for involving all types of participants;
  • Define a clear triggering question highlighting the issue and goal to be addressed at the workshop;
  • Use diverse communication channels (e-mail, telephone, face-to-face and word of mouth) for recruiting participants;
  • Define the initiative's broad goals from a policy, social / cultural, economic, technological perspective;
  • During the recruitment phase, ensure the methodology has been clearly explained and understood, to avoid misunderstandings during the event;
  • Focus the challenge with relevant examples for the participants and related to their daily lives;
  • Provide enough time for the presentation of science outcomes and sharing knowledge from research point of view;
  • Use keynote speakers to introduce the topic for example specialists, but their speech must be in simple language and avoid using difficult terminology;
  • Define the date, finalise the workshop topic and have communication material two months ahead;
  • Focus the workshop and the RRI presentation on a topic relevant for the participants and related to their daily lives;
  • Contact directly the person to recruit via e-mails or telephone;
  • Address a specific subject that concerns multidisciplinary stakeholders;
  • Explain clearly the MARINA project goals;
  • Present the Mobilisation and Mutual Learning and RRI approach;
  • Define a workshop triggering question that is short, clear and easily understood by all stakeholders;
  • Consider personal e-mails as the recruitment mechanism because it has been proven by far the most effective recruitment mechanism;
  • Identify motives for policy makers and implementers to participate in the workshops as they are reluctant in participating;
  • Explain RRI and innovation tools and how to embed them in policy agendas as participants find it useful;
  • Be aware of the motivational factor that workshop participants may feel because they like the fact that an interdisciplinary group representing all society's niches is invited to brainstorming for resolving the problem;
  • Perform an analysis of publics' behaviours before engaging the public engagement;
  • Use audience targeted communication for all types stakeholders to engage them;
  • Initiate target awareness campaigns towards all stakeholders through a specific media;
  • Prepare a concise information corpus for participants;
  • Consider societal challenges (as defined by the EC) during the participative events, in order for the results to be easily related to them.

Milestone 3

  • Create a relaxing but effective work experience and joint decision-making with the world café methodology;
  • Ensure a good representation of professionals (industry related to the topic, policy makers, journalists) to have a balanced dialogue;
  • Send a personalised and direct (e-mail or telephone) invitation to ensure a better buy-in of targeted participants;
  • Allocate sufficient time for discussions and to involve all participants interests and ideas;
  • Allocate more time for group discussions during workshops;
  • Adopt participative methods tested in MARINA in other initiatives including stakeholders;
  • Attract participants by sending invitations via e‐mail, followed by phone calls;
  • Present the topic approached from the beginning of the workshop;
  • Offer a clear explanation of the methodology used to be as clear as possible to the participants;
  • Use methods for involving the active participation of the public by giving them the opportunity to express their opinions;
  • Choose a familiar methodology for participants;
  • Use a method that gives the opportunity to all participants to express their opinion;
  • Involve the private sector, policymakers, the scientific community and the local and national community for the definition of ideas, needs and solutions;
  • Explain at the start of the workshop the different phases that participants will go through;
  • Continue to engage the stakeholders for knowledge exchange after the workshop;
  • Make the workshops highly participatory and interactive;
  • Give the participants sufficient time to present themselves and their work/field of interest, in order to facilitate connection and co-operation after the workshop;
  • Plan an in-depth and varied engagement with stakeholders at all stages of the projects;
  • Adapt the presentation of projects information to the specific needs of respective stakeholders groups;
  • Construct a good collaboration among project partners from the beginning of the project to its legacy to ensure a wider take-up of the results by all partners;
  • Consider carefully legislation and cultural differences between project participants in the discussion prior to the project proposal to avoid possible understanding of feasability barriers;
  • Help participants become active in the workshop by helping them understand the importance of the Marine Hot Topic;
  • Collaborate with your local partners, which can be great allies;
  • Use role play and "Decide" game to integrate difficult concepts in workshop discussion;
  • Adapt the workshop methodology to the local culture;
  • Remember that apart from being scientists, teachers, policy-makers, they are all citizens of coastal cities who want to care for the environment as a private person;
  • Use common words so that non scientists participants can understand and contribute to the discussion without being overwhelmed by scientific language;
  • Ensure that participants can exchange knowledge and meet new people;
  • Look for participants open to dialogue, but who don't usually interact with each other;
  • Start with a roundtable process so that everybody know each-other, and everyone can share their personal perspective of the subject;
  • Hook RRI abstract subjects to a topic related to participants lives and has interests in it;
  • Recruit participants by telephone to ensure a great effectiveness of recruitment;
  • Adapt the workshop schedule and structure according to the specifics and program of the stakeholders you want to attend;
  • Implement RRI in real situations, with many participants proposing many actions;
  • Choose a suitable method for the number of participants and the specific of the workshop;
  • Present and explain the method used;
  • Mobilize stakeholders for active involvement;
  • Engage stakeholders from different sectors of activity;
  • Choose a method which will produce a large amount of data on a topic in a short time;
  • Invite and encourage different stakeholders to participate at this kind of workshops;
  • Stimulate and ensure open dialogue among the attendees;
  • Plan the programme to encourage as much opportunity for interactions between participants;
  • Ask participants' to state their workshop expectations because experience shows that some find the workshop and its participatory method intriguing, others were interested In how to develop a shared vision, some had an interest in being inspired and build networks;
  • Identify and invite the right number of participants representing all necessary science fields to create a viable action plan. Participant recruiting is time-consuming and must be planned well in advance of the workshop;
  • The reversed science cafe method motivates participants to express their opinions and views in a structured, inclusive, yet open manner;
  • Participatory workshops provide good opportunities for better discovering developments and problems of the studied industry;
  • Enable workshops participants to create networks and communities of interest to further research and identify solutions for the studied issue;
  • Engage participants via emails and phone calls, since it has been proven as the most effective means of recruitment;
  • Be aware that it is challenging to persuade people to participate in workshops;
  • Use both phone and email for citizen recruitment;
  • Establish transparent, efficient and effective democratic mechanisms amongst all involved and throughout all the phases to create trust;
  • Keep the workshop's duration short and engage an experienced facilitator;
  • Involve politicians and municipality representatives in workshops to increase its effectiveness;
  • Email and telephone were the best communication channels for promoting the workshop;
  • The SDD method was evaluated as very well structured, inclusive, productive, scientific, interesting and dynamic;
  • Plan well the participant groups so that all stakeholders are sufficiently represented;
  • Promote the workshop through websites and a poster campaigns;
  • Achieve positive engagement with all types of local stakeholders including relevant government agencies, local businesses, regulators, NGOs, CSOs, researchers and citizens;
  • Clarify from the start of any process or workshop all terms and acronyms so that all participants from various backgrounds understand them;
  • Explain clearly the workshop methodology and how the outputs will be used at the beginning of the workshop and include some warm-up activity;
  • Engage researchers with the industry for the development of appropriate technologies since there is a discrepancy between the academia and the industry needs;
  • Choose well the workshop methodology to allow participants contribute to the discussion and to strengthen the links among them;
  • Ensure the comfort of the room (space around the tables, temperature, light etc.) to reduce the stress and fatigue of the participants and to improve the results. Provide some small "gift" or surprise them somehow, to create a friendly environment for the discussion;
  • Define a clear agenda and respect it, but do not hesitate to be flexible and modify the schedule to reach the final results;
  • During the recruitment phase, ensure the methodology has been clearly explained and understood, to avoid misunderstanding during the event;
  • Participants do not subscribe gladly to the platform, they don't have time and/or willingness to learn using another tool;
  • During the recruitment phase, ensure the methodology has been clearly explained and understood, to avoid misunderstanding during the event;
  • Ensure you have some big institution's newsletter to disseminate your workshop for recruitment and spreading of the results;
  • Use new participatory methodologies to attract participants;
  • Take into consideration that despite participants' willingness to participate, often practical barriers impede their attendance in participative workshops;
  • Consider having virtual discussions to help some stakeholder groups (e.g. citizens) to attend participatory workshops and events;
  • Be flexible with the methodology adopted in order to finalize the process, even if not in the way you planned;
  • Choose your methodology considering your audience;
  • Dedicate the needed time to discuss and clarify the methodology and the agenda with the facilitator - and among the organizing group;
  • Define the length of the workshop according with your foreseen audience and local habits;
  • Involve students when possible;
  • Stream only the most crucial sections of the workshop, disseminate the streaming agenda;
  • Provide a synthetic, max 5 pages, info pack about the topic before the workshop;
  • During the recruitment phase, ensure the methodology has been clearly explained and understood, to avoid misunderstanding during the event;
  • Send an official invitation letter signed by the director/president of the institute organizing the workshop to facilitate the recruitment;
  • Apply different participatory methods during the event to maintain a high level of attention.

Milestone 4

  • Ensure that all voices have an equal footing in the debate during the workshop;
  • Request participants keep trying to think from other stakeholders' position;
  • Allocate time for every participant to present his/her own idea and to discuss it in plenum;
  • Let different perspectives on the subject, which will lead to a common background for further discussion;
  • Give all participants the opportunity to discuss and generate ideas;
  • Request the participants to state their ideas in the form of action statements in order to “push” them to think in practical terms;
  • Do not interfere too much with the topics participants chose to focus on, it mostly depends on individual needs/experience and knowledge;
  • Give participants more time to contribute to the ideas at other tables;
  • Enable each group to take the floor to present their results;
  • Activate citizens as a resourceful group of action that could lead to a more innovative and including society;
  • Find moderators with experience on methods used for event moderation;
  • Mobilise stakeholders early in the process to develop viable and sustainable business models;
  • Collect participant's post-workshop feedback focusing on the added value workshop points: the participatory method, the topic, the action plan, the common vision, the future participation options;
  • Encourage researchers to voice their opinions on marine issues in the media focusing on economic, environmental and social needs to enable the uptake of new technologies;
  • Focus on environmental aspects through a multi-stakeholder approach to ensure stability and availability of resources;
  • Create a friendly and relaxed workshop atmosphere for participants to have lively and open discussions;
  • Plan well the workshop so that participants provide their ideas in an active way;
  • A structured participatory method like SDD helps participants converge their opinions towards a common vision and a common action plan;
  • Give tight bounds to participants about the shape of the contributions they have to provide, so they will not have other option than provide what is needed;
  • Provide the participants with the legislative aspects related to the topic. If possible ensure the attendance of an expert;
  • Check the discussion and gently but firmly ask the participants not to lose focus on the final purpose, to speed up and keep up with the timing or not to go too deep or too specific;
  • One day is not enough for SDD.

Milestone 5

  • Ensure that all participants stay until the end of the workshop to have coherent results;
  • Have participants rank the priorities and discuss from the highest to the lowest to co-construct a common vision;
  • Use the SMART action format to ease the follow up of the workshop;
  • Define a clear plan for the future engagement of the workshop's participants to keep the community active;
  • Focus not only on high-level ideas, but also on required research and innovation actions needed to execute them;
  • Check carefully the voting process of the actions, to avoid selfish or non correct behaviours which could distort the results;
  • Translate workshop results in something short and friendly in short time and disseminate among the participants and others, not to loose momentum;
  • Check carefully the voting process, to avoid selfish or improper behaviours, which could distort the results;
  • Consider the RRI principles as guidelines to construct the project processes for a sound management of the projects;
  • Prepare take home tools and methods that participants can implement in their jobs;
  • Develop tools for engaging citizens in urban development and communicate them broadly to inspire local communities;
  • Develop new models and ways of collaborating on climate change in order to create common knowledge and more awareness of climate change in public mind;
  • Organize more science dissemination events targeting the general public;
  • Promote citizen science to involve the general public on research;
  • Develop more partnerships with the Media and NGOs in order to reach bigger audiences;
  • Develop and organize more actions, in order that different stakeholders meet and discuss their ideas more often and get used to think outside their boxes;
  • Develop a network of common interest;
  • Try to obtain clear actions from people from different areas of interest, but targeting the common vision;
  • Define SMART common vision and actions towards a specific goal and project;
  • Push for adjust rules to allow open access to relevant sector research results;
  • Achieve success through multi-stakeholder engagement and consensus;
  • Awareness and education are fundamental in changing mind-sets;
  • Allocate a good part of the workshop for creating a clear common action plan;
  • Generate ideas for actions during the workshops by having: a) simple, short title; one line describing the idea and one-two lines (minimum) explaining and clarifying the idea;
  • Generate ideas for actions during the workshops by having: b) think who would be responsible for implementing the proposed action and how to engage the person or organisation;
  • Generate ideas for actions during the workshops by having: c) timing (when could such an idea be implemented);
  • Generate ideas for actions during the workshops by having: d) resources (how would the idea be implemented);
  • Ensure that the process of co-generating an action plan is concluded during the workshop;
  • Choose the most effective methodology to build a common vision and give space to many different voices;
  • Ask the participants to obtain in advance the necessary authorization from the Institutions they represent, to propose actions during the workshop;
  • Consider the best way of collecting votes for the purpose such as the number of votes available for each participant, the rounds of votes, etc.

Milestone 6

  • Take actions in order to update the actual legislation;
  • Increase environmental and science education to promote societal understanding and participation;
  • Involve some stakeholders in the creation or validation of the scientific processes to improve theur acceptance of the final results, even if it can be seen as a time-consuming process;
  • Follow up with the participants with periodic workshops using the same methodology;
  • Develop partnership between different stakeholders;
  • Create links among participants for future partnerships and develop a network of common interest;
  • Send the final results of the workshop to the participants;
  • Engage participants to apply RRI principles in daily work and daily life;
  • Succeed with public engagement through science education and open access in policy;
  • Action and follow-up the co-defined action plan;
  • Make scientific information reliable and easily accessible to citizens and stakeholders;
  • Consider the impacts of any activity before consenting which may require the deployments of monitoring technologies to facilitate monitoring and impact assessment;
  • Coordinate all activities related to policy, planning and regulation in the best possible way to reduce conflict and help meet environmental, economic and social objectives;
  • Initiate open access through public offices also to non-governmental stakeholders;
  • Provide Open Access to data for a proactive response to societal challenges;
  • Develop information exchange systems between government, industry and the universities;
  • Push for cooperation among academic institutions and the industry, as it is crucial;
  • The greater majority of actions relate to more than one RRI dimension; this shows that actions are multidisciplinary and involve multiple stakeholders.

Milestone 7

  • Develop real-time information systems, training activities and incentives to share knowledge and information for avoiding tendencies of local governments and businesses to downplay negative consequences;
  • To measure success, define clear and achievable objectives;
  • It's necessary a good collaboration and interaction between civil society, policy makers, researchers, business sector and citizens, in all the Black Sea coastal countries;
  • Be aware that only about half of the participants are likely to use the knowledge gained at the workshop;
  • Build capacity through education by developing local and national programmes for secondary schools and outreach programmes through citizen projects utilising real-time data from monitoring equipment;
  • Try to engage volunteer groups/stakeholders who use the specific environment on a regular basis;
  • The participants did not follow-up on the platform as they declared they were willing to do: there are too many platforms, they get lost or do not have time to explore another one;
  • Enhance control mechanisms of research and innovation outputs, according to ethical rules.

Milestone 8

  • Coordinate collaborative activities and tools to push RRI forward;
  • Ensure that funding will be secured for action plan execution and follow up actions;
  • Embed governance in legislation through accountability to ensure the sustainability and to address societal challenges;
  • Use the media and science mediators to make society aware about research and innovation results;
  • Advocate on the necessity of creating specific funding schemes to support the development of the targeted sector based on RRI principles;
  • Increase the impact of projects' results thanks to open access;
  • Push for the adoption of common processes for accessibility of results of European projects that would allow a comparison of results

through time and creation of broader synergies among past and present projects;

  • Put in place effective pathways for communicating policy recommandations to EU and to national bodies as part of the global process of the project;
  • Be aware that the knowledge transfer to other sectors and general public is a great challenge faced by partners of european projects;
  • Improve marine education provided in medium and higher education;
  • Disseminate information about opportunities, threats and risks on the studied topic;
  • Disseminate research and innovation outcomes that have societal relevance for ethical acceptability;
  • Use of technology as an instrument to both monitor the regulations and to disseminate data in near real-time;
  • Create platforms where industry and academic leaders can disseminate accurate and influential information which can be accessible by the general public;
  • Plan periodic meetings on the same topic, with old and new participants, to create ownership of the process, intensify the effort and ensure follow-up;
  • Use your participatory event as a flywheel to organize other similar events.



See also...

Societal Challenge

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