The role of intermediary organizations in the mainstreaming of Responsible Research and Innovation in the Italian industrial sector

Innovation can be conceived of as ‘collective experimentation’, and industry can be viewed as a full partner in heterogeneous innovation networks. The significance of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) depends on the possibility of aligning the diverse actors involved in innovation processes, including firms. A specific challenge in Italy is that the overall majority of industrial companies are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). By reporting the opinions of the participants in an Italian stakeholder workshop, this article suggests that intermediation processes and intermediary agents have an important influence on the uptake of RRI in SMEs.