Responsible Technology Institute

The Responsible Technology Institute (RTI) is an international centre of excellence on responsible technology. It serves to establish a creative and robust community to discuss and develop culturally nuanced approaches to responsibility and responsible innovation (RI). It takes an international focus on the societal challenges presented by new and emergent technologies, unpacks complexities around understandings of responsibility and different regulatory environments, and addresses gaps that exist in industry-related approaches to responsible technology. The RTI draws together strands of ongoing research and investigation of relevance to academia, policy and industry. It directly collaborates with researchers from the Department of Computer Science at Oxford and the Oxford Robotics Institute. It also harnesses wider networks and works collaboratively with other organisations in order to act as a hub and touchpoint on responsible technology for different disciplines. In addition, the RTI provides advice and support for policy makers and government plus seeks to foster public dialogue on RI.  

This collegiate and co-operative model aims to ensure that those developing the businesses, innovations and laws of the future will have a comprehensive understanding of some of the challenges and complexities that technology can bring and how RI can help address these. 

The RTI provides guidelines and suggested directions for further research and acts as consultant on sister organisations’ challenges. If sufficient resources were available, it would be able to support researchers at other institutions in other countries, broadening its reach and impact. It received seed funding as part of the Amazon Web Services gift to the University of Oxford in May 2020. You can find out more about the Institute at its website.