Safe-by-Design: Conceptualizations, Principles, Operationalizations and Practices

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, we have seen an increase in attention to research and innovation for society’s grand challenges, for instance as expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals and visible in national and European mission-directed research and innovation programs. Efforts are undertaken to proactively build on the realization that the outcomes of today’s research and innovation should not only help resolve today’s societal problems in the spheres of climate, energy, mobility, aging, or urbanization, but that they should be designed such that they do not bring forth their own, novel problems. Under labels such as responsible research and innovation, or science with and for society, investments are made to incorporate societal needs in research and innovation agendas and to engage in research and innovation in a reflective, anticipative, forward-looking, and simultaneously responsive way. This serves the purpose, amongst other things, of preventing future risks and addressing ethical, legal, and societal issues early on in research and innovation, to avoid having to provide a “cure” later on. Of course, this preventive rationale has gained more force in light of the transition to a circular economy, in which products and materials are intended to escape the linear produce–consume–dispose pathway. In several fields of emerging technologies, much of such thinking has been undertaken under the tag of safe-by-design. Safe-by-design is a design approach that makes safety a core value, based on the aforementioned consideration that preventing harm is better than curing it. The safe-by-design approach acknowledges the importance of safety in all phases of research and innovation trajectories and potentially looks at safety as integral to the entire chain any research or innovation trajectory is but a component of. What, however, this precisely entails in terms of risk assessment, risk management, chain coordination, and so on, will vary from one field to the next. This also holds for whether or not the safe-by-design approach introduces novelties in dealing with risks and safety issues, or whether it is already an established practice, with lessons learned and showcase examples. At present, there is no clear overview of what meanings are attributed to safe-by-design in different disciplines, making it hard for different perspectives to become pertinent to each other. Thus, questions emerge such as (i) whether or to what extent we can speak of one safe-by-design approach at all, pertinent to any and all disciplines, sectors or fields of application? (ii) what lessons can be drawn from conceptualizing or operationalizing safe-by-design drawn in one place can be applied elsewhere? (iii) what hurdles need to be overcome for the successful translocation of safe-by-design conceptualizations, principles, and practices from one place to another? This Special Issue invites authors to submit manuscripts to disseminate knowledge on the above issues, as well as methods and techniques on how to deal with them. Case studies illustrating safe-by-design approaches are also welcome.

Prof. Pieter van Gelder
Dr. Behnam Taebi
Dr. Zoë Robaey
Dr. Pim Klaassen
Guest Editors

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