Internet innovation contests: A relevant policy tool for responsible research and innovation?

In this article, we question the relevance of Internet innovation contests in order to support and spur Responsible Research and Innovation projects (RRI). Contests represent innovation challenges launched by sponsors on an Internet platform, and offering a reward to the winner. RRI being a recent and evolving concept, it raises many questions, and especially its operational capacity that we have to test. The success of the innovation contests launched by the American Federal Agencies since two decades led us firstly to study the inherent properties of the contests. Secondly, we examine several contests launched by the Agencies and tend to show that these contests already contain at least one dimension of the RRI concept. Consequently, according to us, innovation contests may illustrate, under some specified conditions, appropriate and relevant political tools in order to foster responsible innovation. JEL Codes: L5, L14, O32, O35, O38