Contextualising the RRI approach for universities: The importance of place and positioning when determining societal impact

RRI seeks to further a European knowledge-based competitiveness. The RRI-approach does so by suggesting that higher-educational institutions such as universities align their ed-ucational and research activities with the policy dimensions of RRI. While these dimensions display appealing agendas, universities will find it challenging to match all of these. Accord-ingly, RRI as an approach could run the risk of demotivating universities. In order to reduce such a risk, the paper presents a case study of a Danish university. The paper argues that a concrete way to make RRI operational is to focus on the geography in which universities are placed. From this outset a place-based approach can be strategically adopted by a university to determine the kinds of specific societal interaction and impact with local stakeholders a university should strive for.