Anna Domaradzka
MY BACKGROUND:
I am a sociologist, assistant professor and director at the Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw, where I lead the Civil City Lab’s team of interdisciplinary researchers. My specialty is intersectional and international comparative research in the areas of sociology of science, civil society, urban studies and gender sociology. Currently, I’m a PI in several international projects concerning inclusive and responsible science, urban cohesion, civil society and social economy. I serve as a board member in the International Society for Third Sector Research and the Research Committee on Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change of International Sociological Association.
WHY AM I INTERESTED IN RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION:
As a researcher and coordinator of research projects I often encounter questions and choices concerning our practice. Some of them are ethical, other more technical or even administrative, but each requires reflection and knowledge of procedures. This means that we are often looking for good practices or guidance concerning optimal choices in our research. With COVID-19 disrupting the opportunities for regular fieldwork, we now face new challenges connected with fast digitalization of research and data collection. In my view there is not enough training or know-how available to allow academics and research practitioners a smooth transition into those new research practices in an ethical and responsible way. I hope that SUPER MoRRI will be part of an effort to create better support structures for people striving to do research better and promote standards in fieldwork as well as analysis. As an academic, I see great value in teaching and mentoring about responsible research, both within my field as well as other less research-oriented ones. With more and more public and private actors involved in research activities we also need more public discussion about researchers’ responsibilities and duties. Monitoring system set by SUPER MoRRI could be an important contribution to such debate.
WHAT DO I HOPE TO LEARN / CONTRIBUTE AS COUNTRY CORRESPONDENT:
Involvement in SUPER MoRRI will allow me to develop my own know-how about responsible research and innovation and pass it to my team, students and co-workers in other projects. As a result, I hope to develop a training course on responsible research for social sciences students (MA and PhD level) at our University. In a long term, I hope to lobby for more responsible research tutoring in Polish academia, using SUPER MoRRI and SOPs4RI results and products. In our national context it will give me an opportunity to get more familiar with existing practices, regulations and good practices in the R&I. This type of inside knowledge should be helpful in creating better research programs and grant applications in the future. I’m eager to share this know-how with more junior colleagues, who often lack proper training on the topic. One of the important audiences for this type of knowledge is the ISTR PhD network that focuses on mentoring doctoral candidates working in the field of civil society all over globe.