The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft was founded in 1949 and is Europe’s largest  application-oriented research organisation today. Its research activities are conducted by 69 institutes and research units at locations throughout Germany. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft employs a staff of 24,500, who work with an annual research budget totaling 2.1 billion euros (2017). Of this sum, 1.9 billion euros is generated through contract research. Fraunhofer covers the following key research fields:

• Health and Environment
• Security and Protection
• Mobility and Transport
• Production and Supply of Services
• Energy and Resources
• Communication and Knowledge

The coordinator of JERRI is the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI.

Four Fraunhofer institutes and a team from Fraunhofer’s Headquarters participate in JERRI to match the competences required to carry out the complex transition process across the five RRI dimensions:

The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research TNO connects people and knowledge to create innovations that boost the sustainable competitive strength of industry and well-being of society.

TNO is one of the major internationally oriented contract research and technology organisations in Europe. With a staff of approximately 3200 and an annual turnover of 580 million Euros, TNO is carrying out research in order to achieve impact on the following five transition themes:

• Industry: from economic stagnation to growth in high-technology industry
• Healthy Living: from illness and treatment to health and behaviour
• Defence, Safety & Security: from a wide range of threats to controllable risks
• Urbanisation: from urbanisation bottlenecks to urban vitality
• Energy: from conventional sources to sustainable energy systems

The Institut für Höhere Studien (Institute for Advanced Studies, IHS) is a private, non-profit research organisation that brings together high-level expertise from various disciplines (economics, sociology, and political science, among others) to address fundamental economic and social problems and policy choices. The IHS, which is the only Austrian research institution that links basic academic research and training with applied research and policy advice, consist of eleven research groups. The IHS in general, and the research group “Techno-Science & Societal Transformation” (TSST, which is involved in JERRI) in particular, has participated in and coordinated numerous national and European research projects, and has a long-standing tradition of international research on the societal implications of science and innovation. Currently, the research group TSST is further involved in the EU funded projects ENERI, HEIRRI, MoRRI and newHoRRIzon.

Within JERRI, IHS is responsible for the monitoring (WP8).

The Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) is the largest campus-based university in the UK. Researchers are involved in international leading research in a range of areas and the recent UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment ranked 65% of MMU’s research output as of world leading or internationally excellent quality.

The work on JERRI is carried out by the Centre for Business and Society (CBS) which is based in the Faculty of Business and Law. The Centre focuses on research which supports the development, transition and resilience of businesses and society. It brings together research in five key thematic areas: international business and innovation; enterprise; policy modelling; people and performance; and place management.

MMU is leading the elaboration of the JERRI theoretical framework within WP1.

The JERRI mutual learning process on RRI practices includes two organizations outside Europe; the Arizona State University (ASU) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). 

The Phoenix (USA) based Arizona State University employs as staff of 13.627, whereof more than 50 % are women. Its colleges, schools and institutes cover a wide range of disciplines, from Engineering and Health Solutions to Public Service and Community Solutions, Sustainability or Education.

Arizona State University has developed a new model for the American Research University, creating an institution that is committed to excellence, access and impact. ASU measures itself by those it includes, not by those it excludes. ASU pursues research that contributes to the public good, and ASU assumes major responsibility for the economic, social and cultural vitality of the communities that surround it.

As a key actor of ASU involved in JERRI, Erik Fisher (male), assistant professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies, leads a project called Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR), which includes studies of 30 labs in three different countries to examine how Responsible Innovation can best be achieved.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is the national academy for the natural sciences of the People's Republic of China. It is an institution of the State Council of China. Since its founding, CAS has fulfilled multiple roles — as a national team and a locomotive driving national technological innovation, a pioneer in supporting nationwide S&T development, a think tank delivering S&T advice and a community for training young S&T talent. Furthermore, CAS is functioning as academic governing body, providing advisory and appraisal services on issues stemming from the national economy and social development. It is headquartered in Beijing, with branch institutes all over China.

Regarding its organizational structure, CAS has six academic divisions: Mathematics and Physics, Chemistry, Life Sciences and Medical Sciences, Earth Sciences, Information Technological Sciences and Technological Sciences. It has over one hundred institutes and two universities (the University of Science and Technology of China at Hefei, Anhui and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing), four Science Libraries, three technology support centers and two news and publishing units. CAS has a staff of 60,700, including about 48,500 professional researchers. Of these, approximately 19,000 are research professors or associate professors. CAS has also invested in or created over 430 science- and technology-based enterprises in eleven industries including eight companies listed on stock exchanges, with Lenovo being one of the most famous.

On 26 February 2007, the CAS published a Declaration of Scientific Ideology and set up a commission for scientific integrity to promote transparency, autonomy and accountability of scientific research in the country. The Ministry of Science and Technology had at the same time also initiated measures to address misconduct in state-funded programs.
Now, as it responds to a nationwide call to put innovation at the heart of China’s development, CAS has further defined its development strategy by emphasizing greater reliance on democratic management, openness and talent in the promotion of innovative research.