Social Lab Implementation Report 1: Environmental and climate ethics issues in the context of R&I and for the green transition

This document provides the first report on the implementation activities of the RE4GREEN Social Labs, covering the period from May 2024 to April 2025. The RE4GREEN project, “Research Ethics and Integrity for the GREEN Transition,” focuses on supporting the European Commission to better integrate climate and environmental research ethics and research integrity considerations into its research and innovation programming. The Social Lab process was launched in April 2024 to bring together people from across sectors and R&I domains across the European Research Area, as well as from South Africa and Japan. These Social Labs create participatory spaces for exploring and addressing issues of environmental and climate ethics in the context of research and innovation (R&I) in general and for the Green Transition.

This first phase of the Social Lab process has provided key inputs on guidelines and trainings to partner work packages and laid a foundation for the next stages of the RE4GREEN project. The first implementation phase surfaced key ethical challenges, fostered active R&I community engagement, and prepared for a deeper exploration of how to address climate and environmental issues in R&I. Upcoming workshops will gather feedback on policy recommendations and training materials developed by WP3 and WP4, as well as facilitate an exploration of the "do no significant harm" principle and how to better operationalize it in European research and innovation.