Integrating the interests and values of the university with its surrounding area increases the quality, relevance, social acceptance and the sustainable results of education, research and innovation processes.

To foster this renewed relationship with the external world, it is necessary to move from the concept of public awareness, which in fact only informs stakeholders, to the European concept of “Science with and for society” to restore the university’s fundamental role as a part of modern culture.

In Europe, this growing focus on the social impact of scientific organizations is referred to as RRI - Responsible Research and Innovation, a vision aimed at promoting a more socially responsible approach to research through five pillars:

• Access to knowledge (open access);
• Ethics;
• Gender issues - by promoting women's access to university careers and equal opportunities;
• Scientific education;
• Public engagement - with the dimension of governance as a transversal element.

Sapienza actively promoted RRI through the USR-NET Erasmus Plus Project to develop a network of socially responsible universities and the Horizon 2020 Project FIT4RRI, which it coordinated.

Project FIT4RRI involved 13 institutions from 9 European countries and had a two-fold objective:

• to raise awareness amongst researchers, especially in the field of hard sciences, to implement RRI through educational activities and co-creation experiments that reveal the impact of responsibility in the daily practices of researcher;
• to define a RRI-based governance model that, through indicators and responsible development strategies, can foster institutional change in universities and research organisations.