Research Responsibility by Design: Weaving Governance and Equity into Research Practice in Response to an Evolving Research Landscape

What is new? In the current evolving research landscape, the implementation of academic research has expanded into a complex and active paradigm. Research and its output are expected not only to be robust and innovative, but also to be responsive to evolving societal norms and governance requirements. Where there is a disconnect between the expectations and the operational support provided by institutions and other research-related organizations, it is often the role of administrators in research teams to pragmatically translate, design and implement this dialogue into research practice. Referred to as Responsible Research by Design (RRbD) we propose a new framework that draws upon previously documented research governance models that aim to marry ethics, community engagement, data governance, and evolving cultural norms such as transparency, equity and fairness, while supporting research practice. What was the approach? Through a case study of a large, Canadian funded research program that focuses on Health Equity and Community Wellbeing (HECW) in Toronto, Canada, we describe the creation of a comprehensive research operational framework that offers unique and critical insights into building rigorous yet pragmatic processes that weave inter-relational dialogue across research operations, governance, participant privacy protections, and equity principles. What is the academic impact? The importance of this RRbD case study is that it: a) extends and adapts existing integrated research governance models to interdisciplinary research across the social sciences and health equity academic paradigms; b) creates a comprehensive operational structure that blends ethics, data governance, privacy, and equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (EDIA) research principles, imperatives and requirements for funding; c) inserts training and human resources practices into routine practice; d) provides a practical example of how an integrated operational framework can be feasibly created and implemented within a large, interdisciplinary research program. What is the wider impact? The RRbD framework is rooted in a set of principles – integrity, responsibility, co-creation, transparency, and capacity – that mirror the research program itself and weaves operational design across the research lifecycle. As such, the RRbD framework acts as both a conceptual and a practical guide for researchers and research administrators by integrating research, governance and administrative imperatives.