Launching the Responsible Innovation Prompts and Practice Cards (RI Cards) video

Written by Virginia Portillo and Hazel Sayers 

Our hoRRIzon (1.0, 2.0 & 3.0) and TAS projects on Responsible Innovation (RI) have now come to an end, and as promised in our recent blog, we are delighted to launch a short promotional RI video developed in collaboration with RAi UK.  

The video highlights the value of integrating RI into research and features Professor Tom Rodden (Pro-Vice Chancellor, Research and Knowledge Exchange, University of Nottingham), Elvira Perez (Professor of Digital Technology For Mental Health, University of Nottingham), Gopal Ramchurn (Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of Southampton), Virginia Portillo (Coordinator for RRI and EDI at RAi UK and Research Fellow, University of Nottingham), followed by first-hand testimonies of people that have used the Responsible Innovation  Prompt and Practice Cards (RI Cards) as a tool to support implementation of RI as part of their work within the academic, public and private sectors (Jo Marriott, Kate Devlin, Rhianne Jones, Shoaib Ehsan, Aislinn Gomez Bergin, Nora McIntyre, Sabine Hauert & Mohamed Naseh).  

The RI Cards are a high-level tool developed as part of Horizon DER, at the School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham and improved through collaborative research with the Trustworthy Autonomous System  (TAS) programme. These cards, grounded in the AREA framework (UKRI), help stimulate discussions around RI, highlight strengths and weaknesses, and identify areas for further action. They are licensed under a CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, being openly available in both physical CC and digital formats, as versatile tools for face-to-face activities or online platforms. Each colour-coded card is aligned with the AREA-Plus Framework, focusing on one of the four elements—Anticipate, Reflect, Engage, Act—and one of the “4 Ps”—Purpose, Product, People, Process.  

Since 2023, the RI Cards have been used in many contexts as part of RI training sessions across and beyond Horizon, TAS and RAi UK to academics, early career researchers, partners and associates. The cards have supported several project teams’ during RI focused sessions, helping to structure and prompt in depth discussion and reflection, identify priorities, plan RI activities and to take action.  

We have distributed over 300 physical decks of RI Cards across the UK, USA, France, Australia, India, Brazil and Colombia, and they have been used within and beyond academia, nationally and internationally. Examples of these activities include RI training workshops and demonstration of the use of this tool with real examples of their application within projects at TAS Hub annual conferences (Edinburgh, 2023 and Austin, 2024), TAS Hub Showcase (London, 2024), RAi UK RRI and EDI into practice workshop (Nottingham, May 2024) and the launch of RAi UK Skills projects (Glasgow, November 2024). Filming of this video took place at the TAS Showcase and the RAi UK RRI and EDI into practice workshop. 

We would like to thank everyone who contributed towards the production of, and featured in the video: UK Research and Innovation (Horizon Digital Economy Research – EP/T022493/1, Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub – EP/V00784X/1 and Responsible AI UK – EP/Y009800/1),  researchers, academics, students, research support staff, Sean Riley Computerphile, innovators and colleagues within the public and business sector that used the RI Cards and shared their valuable feedback with us.