New technologies like nanotechnology, synthetic biology, internet of things, robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicles have an increasing impact on our everyday life, our society, and the environment. This means that companies have to innovate responsibly and to include societal values – such as privacy, safety, sustainability, fair distribution of risks and benefits, safety or inclusiveness – in the development strategy of innovative products. This is known as ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’ (RRI).    

Dr H.B.M (Henk) Hilderink (1966) is Top expert Population Health Foresight at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

Scientific research is of vital importance to RIVM for our contribution to public health and a healthy living environment. This research generates much data, which must then be analysed. The quality of the research, and hence RIVM's contribution, is closely related to the quality of the data and the data analyses. With the SPR theme "Collection and analysis of data", RIVM invests in recently developed methods to improve and facilitate the collection and analysis of large amounts of data.

When it comes to social issues concerning the environment and health, it is important to know what motivates citizens. How do they view these issues (perception), and how do they act (behaviour)? The living environment of citizens often differs from that of scientists. Scientists express the risks of an event in terms of 'chance' and 'seriousness'. Citizens experience risks differently in many cases. The feeling of having control over a situation, for example, plays an important role. For example, they estimate the probability of a nuclear incident to be greater than scientists because they have no control over it. Conversely, the chance of a fatal fall at home is perceived by the public as smaller because of the feeling of having control. Moreover, the public's assessment of risks is often influenced by emotions that are difficult to reason but can have a major influence on the acceptance of risks.

Safety is an important theme in Dutch society. Society expects government to contribute to a safe living environment and to protect it against the risks of large-scale and (possibly) socially disruptive incidents or disasters. By safety, we usually mean that there are no dangers or risks. Or if they do occur, how governments protect society against the risks and help limit the consequences.

The quality of our living environment, both physical and social, influences our health. Think for example of how clean the air is, proximity to nature, friends or family. It is important that our living environment keeps us healthy (clean water or no noise pollution), stimulates us to be physically active (cycling, walking), is safe, invites us to participate in society, and stimulates self-reliance so that we can continue to live longer and healthier in our environment.

The world's population is growing, more and more people are overweight, and our ecological footprint is too large. To produce sufficient food in a sustainable manner in the near future, the current food system needs to be changed.  The food system includes everything needed to feed populations: from growing and harvesting food to food consumption.

In the coming years, there will be changes in health care, both in terms of supply and demand and health care costs will rise. The number of elderly people in the Dutch population is growing, and they will live longer. There is an ongoing debate concerning the quality of care for the elderly, which puts pressure on long-term care. At the same time, staff shortages in the health care system will continue to worsen during the upcoming period. Despite limited resources, the system must continue to deliver good quality care. Prevention will have a major part to play in this situation. Innovations in the field of medical and health care technology have an impact on the health care system, as does the fact that health care is becoming increasingly personalised. The social challenge is to deliver top-quality care in the right place, with minimal risk, while achieving the right balance of costs and benefits.

Growing global demand for raw materials is placing increasing pressure on the environment, which is already exceeding the Earth’s sustainability limits. The transition to a circular economy offers a solution to this problem. In a circular economy, the use of new raw materials is minimal, and the reuse of materials and products is maximal. The Netherlands aims to be completely circular by 2050.