NAP4DIVE Partner Blog Highlights the Role of Stakeholder Engagement in Shaping Responsible Innovation

As emerging biomedical technologies reshape the future of healthcare, understanding their societal and ethical implications becomes increasingly important. In a recent blog published through the 4TU.Ethics and Technology platform, Vivian Brunsberg, PhD candidate at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and member of the NAP4DIVE consortium, explores how scenario-based approaches can support meaningful stakeholder engagement and responsible innovation.

Drawing on her research within the NAP4DIVE project, Vivian discusses how scenarios can help stakeholders imagine and reflect on possible futures enabled by new approach methodologies (NAMs), including advanced in vitro and in silico models. Rather than focusing solely on technical capabilities, these narrative scenarios encourage participants to explore their emotions, values, hopes, and concerns regarding emerging technologies.

The blog highlights the concept of “emotional deliberation”, showing how emotional responses can reveal underlying values that are often overlooked in technology development and decision-making. By making future technological pathways more tangible, scenarios can foster dialogue, reflection, and co-creation among researchers, industry representatives, policymakers, patients, and other stakeholders.

This perspective aligns closely with NAP4DIVE’s commitment to Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Beyond developing innovative tools for drug delivery and reducing reliance on animal testing, the project seeks to ensure that technological advances are developed in ways that reflect societal needs, ethical considerations, and stakeholder perspectives.

By encouraging stakeholders to actively imagine and shape desirable futures, scenario-based engagement can contribute to more inclusive and socially robust innovation processes. As Vivian argues, the future of emerging technologies should not only be predicted but collectively reflected upon and co-created.

📖 Read the full blog by Vivian Brunsberg: Feeling the Future: Using Scenarios to Engage Stakeholders

https://www.4tu.nl/ethics/blog/feeling-the-future-using-scenarios-to-engage-stakeholders/#_ftn1