Evolutionary Path of Responsible Research and Innovation: Opening the Black Box of RRI

In the new generation of entrepreneurial and community-based universities, their role in solving social issues and socializing has become much more essential. If universities and scientific institutions want to take action in this direction more than before, it is necessary to gain an accurate understanding of the insights and dimensions of social responsibility in research and innovation. In this study, we seek the main concepts in the field of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). We have opened the black box of it through systematic literature review(SLR) and Scientometrics Analysis(SA). This study shows that the Responsible Research and Innovation concept has been evolving in recent years with the development of scientific concepts such as social innovation, corporate social responsibility, and university social responsibility. In this study, the selected articles identified by the SLR method from different textual dimensions and the emergence of new concepts are analyzed. In this study, 33 concepts in 8 different themes in the black box of RRI were identified based on the SLR method. Also, based on the Scientometric analysis and word occurrences analysis, the 10 most used words were identified. Finally, through a collaborative review, 5 key concepts for this area have been identified. These concepts are public engagement, sustainability, ethics, governance, and RRI. Breaking the black box of this concept in this article can shed some light on the literature in this field and reduce its complexity.