On November 15, 2024, ASU’s Global Futures Office of Research Development and Strategy (GFORDS) hosted a workshop to explore how ASU can better engage with Principled Innovation (PI) and Responsible Innovation (RI) in addressing societal and environmental challenges. The goal was to begin to explore how ASU can better engage with and support participants in these areas, especially in relation to environmental and societal challenges like sustainability innovation.
The workshop’s overview
The workshop introduced participants to Principled Innovation as a new element in ASU’s identity, as part of the design aspirations and as emanating from the Charter. It emphasized that Principled Innovation is a fluid and evolving framework for decision-making and that it may be a useful tool for helping to improve the way that ASU interacts with community members and organizations.
Using the Principled Innovation card deck, participants examined ASU’s role through the four character domains—Moral, Civic, Intellectual, and Performance—identifying ASU as a potential trust-builder in community relationships. Discussions highlighted the need for deeper community engagement, accessible resources, and clearer pathways for collaboration. Participants emphasized that ASU should bridge gaps between academia, policymakers, and local communities by embedding faculty, providing stable knowledge, and fostering long-term partnerships. The event also examined how PI can enhance ASU’s commitment to Being Socially Embedded and Conducting Use-Inspired Research, revealing gaps in funding, incentives, and engagement structures.
Next steps
Community participants articulated their desire for ASU’s role to be a stable source of knowledge in an ever-changing world of frequent employee turnover, short political cycles, and readjusting priorities. To mitigate unintended consequences of innovation, this knowledge should take an anticipatory and longer perspective, rather than focusing on the short-term gains.
Another role for ASU, the participants agreed, was to be a neutral convener, connector, and translator, building trust among the worlds of academia, policymakers and citizens. To be successful at this role will require an investment of resources to build this “front door to ASU” infrastructure, including dedicated staff to make the connections, faculty incentives for participation in the work, and neutral spaces to convene at ASU and satellite locations beyond.
Participants acknowledged the need for ASU to build trust and stronger relationships with under-served communities before taking on a convening role. They were also interested in exploring expanded ASU partnerships with local government agencies beyond a sustainability focus, with a goal of understanding and addressing the agencies’ unique context and constraints.
Finally, addressing the challenges of funding co-development was a topic of consideration. Generally, funders want to support the best available existing technology rather than unknown outcomes of innovation and co-development. ASU can advance an iterative, “agile” methodology, including aspects of change management that are part of this methodology. It can serve as a demonstration testbed. Additionally, we must move from a scarcity mindset of competing for resources to one of collaborative abundance – we are stronger when we work together.