Digital public engagement in excellent Spanish science: Analysis of research projects funded by European Research Council

How much the excellent science uses web 2.0 tools to encourage public engagement in the research process is analyzed. Understanding participation, from the perspective of responsible research and innovation, not only as the communication of scientific results, but also the involvement of society in scientific development. For the analysis, an ad-hoc questionnaire developed using the Delphi method was designed and validated. The study sample is constituted by Spanish projects financed by the European Research Council in 2015. Among the results obtained, the reduced use of digital applications stands out. In fact, only 23.9% of projects have a website and less than 15% have a social profile. Regarding participation mechanisms, a limited 3% uses web 2.0 to involve citizens. With reference to the characteristics of the communication, it can be concluded that it is unidirectional from the institution responsible for the project to society-97% of the cases- and presents a high level of specialization -in more than 80% of the cases a technical language is used and the messages posted are aimed solely at experts-.