Science with and for Society is a program part on Horizon 2020, the Framework Program for Research and Innovation and located outside the three key areas of "Science Excellence", "Leading Role of Industry" and "Social Challenges".

The specific objective of "Science with and for Society" focuses less on individual research areas, but promotes aspects that have a high relevance for excellent research and innovation. It supports measures in different areas and addresses target groups from a variety of scientific disciplines and different sectors. In this case, the top-down approach is applied, ie, promotion topics are specified. The types of measures supported are mainly coordination and support measures as well as isolated research and innovation measures.

Science with and for Society programme aims to  to build effective cooperation between science and society, to recruit new talent for science and to pair scientific excellence with social awareness and responsibility.The programme supports activities enabling all societal actors (researchers, policy makers, science communicators, business, civil society organisations, citizens, etc.) to work together throughout the research and innovation process in order to better align both the process and its outcomes with society’s values, needs and expectations. This approach is defined as Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).

RRI is an inclusive approach to research and innovation (R&I), to ensure that societal actors work together during the whole research and innovation process. It aims to better align both the process and outcomes of R&I, with the values, needs and expectations of  society. In general terms, RRI implies anticipating and assessing potential implications and societal expectations with regard to research and innovation. In practice, RRI consists of designing and implementing R&I policy that will:

• engage society more broadly in its research and innovation activities,
• increase access to scientific results,
• ensure gender equality, in both the research process and research content,
• take into account the ethical dimension, and
• promote formal and informal science education.

Science with and for Society programme focuses through its calls on the following:

• Responsible Research and Innovation
• Open Science-Open Access
• Science Education
• Ethics
• Gender Equality
• Public Engagement

Total budget of the programme: € 444.9 Million