What is required of requirements?

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) considers the impact of development on stakeholders and provides a direction for the future of science and technology. Therefore, in the practical world of the lab, what is needed is a set of guidelines to assist in the application of those RRI principles. However, to ensure that any guidelines are usable and acceptable, it is important to engage with those who would actually be expected to implement them. Stakeholders are often asked to evaluate a set of guidelines or recommendations without having any say in how they are constructed, what they should look like or what they should contain. The process of stakeholder engagement in the development of a set of 'requirements' therefore provides insight from which a set of guidelines can be developed. In this way, acceptance is fostered through stakeholder involvment in the process, which has been built from the core principles of RRI.