Be digital and responsible: The case of Grand Est territory in France

Digitalization represents a major change in terms of its impact on society and businesses (Tihinen et al. 2016) as it aims at transforming traditional processes, tools, objects or trades through digital technologies in order to make them more efficient (Schneider et Sting 2020). As a result of technological advances, digitization is one of the main drivers of change on a global and territorial scale by acting as a catalyst for transition in all dimensions of the economy, social life and the environment. Indeed, digitalization is a sociotechnical process of applying digitizing techniques to broader social and institutional contexts that render digital technologies infrastructural" (Tilson, Lyytinen, et Sørensen 2010). Hence, the digital transition imposes a revision of our lifestyles, organizational and economic models. Considering this broad range of social impacts, it seems important to anticipate and manage the digitalization process for avoiding negative impact on the territory, i.e. the digitalization of a territory must be ethically acceptable and socially desirable. The concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI), is defined as "a transparent and interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually receptive to each other with a view to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products (in order to allow a good integration of scientific and technological progress in our society)" (Von Schomberg 2013). The problematic is then: is the concept of RRI adapted to the challenge of territorial digitalization and how? So, this paper therefore focuses on the functioning modes of actors engaged in the digitization process according to RRI criteria in order to guarantee an ethical and acceptable digitization transition while considering the complexity of the territory to be digitized. The attention is directed toward the territorial ecosystem involved in digitalization and the importance they give to RRI concepts. More precisely the aim is to identify the RRI concepts considered as priorities by the local actors in the management of the digital development of their territory. The paper gives definitions about the RRI concept and detailed the six different sub-concepts: ethics, governance, open data, gender equality, scientific training and public engagement. Moreover, it censuses seven major aspects of the process of territorial digitalization: infrastructure, technology, people competencies, culture, stakeholders networking, communication and business models. Then, the research is based on a cross-impact analysis where the six dimensions of RRI are confronted to these seven pillars of territorial digitalization. One particular territory is taken as an experimentation field: the Grand Est Region in France. At the border of Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, this French territory has elaborated a very precise political program about digitalization. The research data are collected through interviews and during four workshops gathering local stakeholders from the quadruple helix: citizens, enterprises, public institutions and academia. About fifty experts participated to the elaboration of the cross impact analysis that has allowed the elaboration of a roadmap for the Grand Est ecosystem. Note that this work was accomplished within the EU project DigiTeRRI, which has received funding from the European Union`s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme SwafS under grant agreement No. 873010.