RESEARCH AND INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Their core work

RIS is a New Delhi-based policy research institute specialising in development economics, international trade, and technology governance from a Global South perspective. In H2020, they contributed expertise on how responsible innovation practices and institutional frameworks translate across emerging economies — a perspective that European-led consortia rarely have in-house. Their work sits at the intersection of science policy, sustainable development (particularly the 2030 Agenda), and the geopolitics of technology adoption in countries like India, Brazil, and China. For consortium builders, RIS offers direct access to Indian policy networks and an analytical lens on how technology assessment and governance work outside the European context.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 engagement (2016-2019), RIS worked on the organisational and ethical dimensions of research practice — how institutions implement responsible innovation, what best practices look like across different national contexts. By 2020, their focus had shifted decisively toward digital governance and the geopolitics of technological change: how emerging powers (India included) are navigating digitalisation, and what that means for global sustainability goals. The trajectory is from micro-level institutional practice toward macro-level policy and governance of technology at a global scale.

RIS is moving toward comparative technology policy research that bridges the EU and Global South — a direction likely to grow as EU funding increasingly requires non-European perspectives on digital and green transitions.

How they like to work

RIS joins consortia as a specialist partner rather than a project driver — they have never coordinated an H2020 project. They contribute a specific asset (Global South policy expertise, India access) that complements European technical partners. With 24 unique partners across 15 countries from just two projects, they operate in wide, diverse consortia rather than tight repeated partnerships — suggesting they are brought in for what they know, not because of pre-existing relationships.

Despite only two H2020 projects, RIS has touched 24 distinct partner organisations across 15 countries — an unusually broad network for this project volume, reflecting the large multi-partner nature of MSCA-RISE and CSA instruments. Their network spans Europe and extends into emerging economies, consistent with their thematic focus.

What sets them apart

RIS is one of the very few Indian policy research institutes with direct H2020 participation, giving them credibility as a bridge between EU research norms and the Indian policy ecosystem. For any consortium addressing digitalisation, sustainability governance, or technology assessment that needs a genuine emerging-economy voice — not just a token non-EU partner — RIS brings institutional legitimacy and a track record of translating these topics into development policy frameworks. Their combination of RRI grounding and 2030 Agenda expertise is rare outside European circles.

Highlights from their portfolio

• PRODIGEES
  A 2020-2025 project explicitly focused on digitalisation in emerging powers — rare in H2020 — making RIS one of the few non-EU institutes embedded in EU research on how India and similar economies are shaping global digital governance.
• RRI-Practice
  This was RIS's entry into H2020 as a funded participant (EUR 98,125), demonstrating that a developing-country think tank could contribute meaningfully to a European organisational research practice project — unusual for a non-European REC.