SocKETs (Societal Engagement with Key Enabling Technologies) brings together six European partners with the aim to test and develop methods and tools to align the development of Key Enabling Technologies with societal values and needs. SocKETs will facilitate co-creation between industry representatives, researchers, policymakers, end-users, civil society representatives and citizens, and will develop tools for societal engagement in innovative technologies. The project brings together a consortium providing access to industry actors and innovation networks, manufacturers, professional users, and citizens. It combines the opportunity to test, prototype, evaluate and distribute co-creative and societal engagement tools from the laboratory and innovation networks of innovators to the science museums of civil society. In the end, SocKETs will develop a toolbox that enables KETs to be developed in dialogue with citizens and society.

To get there, SocKETs has developed six test cases across Europe. Three cases are coordinated by SocKETs partners with their local networks focusing on different KETs:

• Wearable electronics and health ;
• Industrial Automation system and the changing nature of work and;
• Advanced manufacturing technologies, advanced materials, ICT, Internet of Thing, AI and blockchain tech, and the circular economy.

By working closely with our four linked parties of the Ecsite network three other cases will be developed - The Centre for Research and Analysis, Bulgaria; AHHAA science centre, Estonia; and the centre for the promotion of science, Serbia. A fourth linked party will also be involved - Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, Italy - who will be working closely with the partner leading on the Advanced Manufacturing technologies case study. Here engagement tools will be tested for inclusion into the SocKETs toolbox for industry on citizen engagement.

With the results of the case studies, Ecsite, together with our linked third parties will produce a framework for a living exhibition that will be shown in each third-party location. This exhibition will be based on a two-way dialogue where viewers can interact and engage with the KETs based solution devised in the project. The project believes that its participatory and interactive approach to developing the toolbox will contribute in enhancing public understanding of cutting-edge technologies and their diverse applications; and it will demonstrate how to engage citizens in dialogue and co-creation on priorities, expectations and concerns for realising the potential of KETs for societal benefit.