Free guides, the AREA 4P framework, and self-assessment tools.
If you are a PhD student, post-doctoral researcher or academic staff member, our open frameworks and self-assessment tools are free to use. For a full workshop with your cohort, ask your CDT or research office to book us in.
Free frameworks and tools.
The open material every PhD student, early-career researcher and academic staff member can use, no account needed for most of it:
The AREA 4P framework guide
The canonical reference behind every ORBIT workshop. Anticipate, Reflect, Engage, Act, across Process, Product, Purpose and People.
Open the guideThe Keys of RRI
A concise conceptual reference for placing Responsible Research and Innovation in your own discipline.
Read the guideThe RRI Maturity tool
A structured self-diagnostic for organisations and research groups. See where your RRI practice now sits.
Open the toolIndividual self-assessment
An individual self-diagnostic instrument for taking your own bearings on RRI practice.
Open the toolThe action plan tool
A planning workflow for moving from RRI assessment to concrete next steps, with archives of past plans.
Start a planIntroduction to RRI
A short self-paced course providing a general overview of Responsible Research and Innovation. Free with a registered ORBIT account.
Start the courseWhere to start.
Three sensible starting points, depending on where you are in your project:
Start with the intro course
The free Introduction to RRI is the fastest way in. Self-paced, online, about an hour.
Jump into the AREA 4P guide
If you have a project in front of you and want to put RRI to work straight away, use the AREA 4P framework guide and the action plan tool.
Read the intro to engagement
If your interest is in stakeholder engagement specifically, the Introduction to Stakeholder Engagement is the fastest way in.
Want the full workshop?
The full ORBIT training is delivered in person to cohorts and teams, commissioned by your CDT, research office or department. If you would like a full workshop with your cohort, the route is:
- Speak to your CDT director, supervisor or research office about commissioning ORBIT.
- Point them at the For CDTs or For Universities pages, where the commissioning process is laid out in full.
- They can talk to us directly with no obligation. We reply within one working day with a fixed quote.
In the meantime, the open material above is genuinely free, and the AREA framework guide is enough to start putting RRI thinking into your own work.
Open the AREA framework and start there.
It is the same framework every ORBIT workshop is built around. Read the guide, work through a project of your own, see what surfaces.