Who to recruit as participants?

Until now, we have been talking about engaging with citizens, but it is not straight forward to recruit random citizens. This is why we make a distinction between ‘citizens’ and ‘societal actors’: citizens are individuals that make up the general public and societal actors are individuals who act within a collective towards a societal goal. It is easier to reach and invite societal actors, because they are already organised as a group working towards a goal. Asking random citizens for their time, on the other hand, requires a very strong incentive. It is important to note, however, that societal actors are often members of civil society organisations, which represent their own interest. As a kind of activists for society, societal actors might have a stake in participating and this has to be considered when defining who you want to engage with.

How to define your stakeholders?

Once you have defined a clear goal for engaging citizens, you need to define who your ideal target group is. Anyone can be considered a citizen, but what kind of citizens or societal actors would inform your tech development and your company’s innovation plan? If, for example, you are working in sustainable housing, you can invite a diverse group of residents from a specific building, but you can also look further into other relevant societal actors whose input could be valuable, such as neighbourhood representatives, municipality stakeholders or activist groups.

Below is a sketch of an innovation eco-system, which you can use to map out the stakeholders who are relevant to your tech innovation. Focus in particular on the societal actors and citizens who are the contextual actors. Which network contacts do you already have, that could be used, and which new ones could be made?

Insights from a corporation in Spain: involving all societal actors

Maria Ruiz is Research and Development Coordinator at the Innovation Centre of the Mondragón Corporation (ISEA) in Spain. She explains that in order to reach a competitive innovation system, all societal actors should be involved:

Practical ways to reach your target group

The next step is to think of practical ways to reach out to your target group. Here are our suggestions:

A recruitment agency can be approached to recruit a diverse group of citizens.
For targeting random citizens, you can use social media’s marketing features.
For societal actors, you can directly contact the organisation or community representatives to enquire how best to invite people.
Use your connections through your network. Personal invitations to participate in an event often result in a higher number of attendees.

It is important to formulate a clear message to prospective participants. Why should they care to participate in your event? How can they benefit from participating, and how will their contribution be used? It is important to emphasise that no specialized technological knowledge is required – showing up and sharing their own experiences, thoughts and concerns is all that is needed. Ultimately, the point of societal engagement is to improve people’s lives by aligning their needs and values to your services/products. Therefore, the message should be that you hope to empower people through their participation.

Further tips to gain more participants

In order to get participants, it is important to:

Describe the event in a way that stimulates people’s curiosity and triggers their interest to participate.
Explain clearly why people should participate and what they can gain from it.
Use normal language rather than technical or research jargon.
Introduce your activity with stimulating questions and an active vocabulary.
Explain which tangible outcomes can be expected and, if possible, how they will be acted upon.
Schedule the event in the after-hours or weekends so that it is not during working hours.

Insights from an association in Italy: How important is the involvement of civil society organisations and citizens?

Sara Grassi, at the Italian Association of Private Construction Contractors (ANCE), explains why it is important to engage citizens:

Insights from a company in Denmark: The benefits of collaborating with various stakeholders

Thomas Pedersen, Founder and CEO of Otiom (a company creating products for people with dementia), explains the benefits of developing relationships with a diversity of stakeholders:

Examples of ways to recruit citizens

One way to reach citizens is to collaborate with civil society organisations. A good example of this is the project case from our partners in Italy, AIRI, who planned two workshops for citizens. The workshops were both hosted in collaboration with a housing association that helped recruit participants and provided a space for the workshops, which had a friendly, familiar environment so that citizens felt comfortable. To enable citizens to take part in the discussion, the workshops’ duration was 2 hours and was held in the late afternoon at 17:00-19:00. The workshop was well organised and the facilitators gained many insights from the engagement with citizens.

In the project case of our Danish partners, DTI, healthcare professionals were recruited through a diversity of methods:

direct phone calls
contact with trade unions
through nursing homes
through postings on diverse social media forums dedicated to healthcare professionals

This last method was particularly effective, resulting in the enrolment of two healthcare professionals. Citizens were recruited through social media forums, with Facebook advertisements, and directly by contacting the union of Danish patients through phone calls. The recruitment process for the second workshop was long and arduous, but they managed to recruit 27 participants.

Questions to consider

Which groups of citizens would you like to get to know better, and why?
How will you reach out to citizens and/or societal actors?
Who is your target user, and who is not? Would it be relevant to engage with the latter?
Which obstacles will you face in engaging citizens, and how can you overcome them?
What expectations do you have about prospective participants?
Which assumptions do you have about your participants’ perspectives and values?
What kind of outcomes do you expect the participants to contribute to?
How many participants do you need for your event, to meet your goal?

From societal engagement to co-creation

It is very challenging to find participants for societal engagement events, but if you manage and the facilitation is done well, it is both a rewarding and enriching process to connect with citizens over important issues in society. This is because the process of collaboration creates trust between people and can create an interest in continuous engagement. If you take the process of societal engagement further, based on trust, empathy and inclusiveness, you can try methods of co-creation where citizens are involved over a longer period of time in defining the trajectory of technological innovation.

Remember to act according to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

When contacting people and receiving personal data, it is important to have a GDPR strategy in place. Consult with your in-house GDPR representative on this process. If there is a registration form, it might be necessary to ask the registrant for permission to collect their data and store it for a limited amount of time.

SOCKETS-COCREATION.EU

The Guide towards Responsible Tech Innovation using Societal Engagement has been created as part of the EU funded SocKETs project, which aims to align innovative technologies with citizens’ needs and values through societal engagement.
This 3-year project has been managed by 10 partners from 8 European countries.

This guide and its contents reflect only their authors' view. The Research Executive Agency and the European Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.

The SocKETs project (Societal Engagement with Key Enabling Technologies) has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under grant agreement no.958277.

SOCKETS-COCREATION.EU

The Tech Industry’s Guide has been created as part of the EU-funded SocKETs project, which aims to align innovative technologies with citizens’ needs and values through societal engagement.
This 3-year project has been managed by 10 partners from 8 European countries.