InSPIRES: Science shops 2.0

In this paper, we present some aspects of the European Project InSPIRES, which is focused on the concept of the science shop. A science shop is a methodology of opening universities and research centers to the civil society, accepting proposals for investigations and having them carried out by the students under the supervision and the scientific responsibility of a senior researcher. The goal of InSPIRES is that of cataloguing the methodologies used by the different science shops in the world, extracting the best practices; pro- moting the development of similar experiences in southern Europe and related countries, and increasing the continuous participation of citizens along the lines of the responsible research and innovation, also using Internet-based tools.