Report on societal engagement with food consumer science community

Task 8.2 (MS22) aims to ensure meaningful stakeholder engagement protocol as a manifestation of RRI and to elicit views on the aims, activities and potential outcomes (benefits and risks) of COMFOCUS. Our definition of COMFOCUS stakeholders includes scientists, technologists as well as consumers (the public) who are data subjects. We will explore the ethical and social dimensions underpinning the assumptions of value trade-offs between public data sharing and scientific development and its risks. In order to achieve this, we will engage directly with the SF, IAB, and the WSs organised in Tasks 2.5, 2.6. Our aim will be to elicit discussions within each of the networking activities, about the short and long term social and ethical impacts of COMFOCUS. Our task will be to oversee the processes of engagement planned (including agenda setting, procedures/protocols and outcomes of engagement) and to synthesise RRI-relevant concerns of stakeholders which will inform our COMFOCUS Toolbox. Furthermore, jointly with WP2, we will organise 4 innovative public engagement events in 6 countries (task 2.7). Here, the publics will participate as stakeholders in communities of which will explore lay people’s views on practices of sharing consumer-relevant data and generating new knowledge. The development of the protocol for public engagement will be informed by the large- scale survey conducted under the auspices of the project RICHFIELDS (GA-654280), which explored data-sharing intentions of N=8000 citizens across 8 countries. Building on the results of this work, which identified the conditions under which people are willing to share their food-related data, Task 8.2 will provide further insights into the willingness of the public to produce, share and use food-related data with researchers and companies. The outcome of this work will be a set of parameters and considerations in order to develop good practice in food consumer science.