Responsible research and innovation is an emerging term of art in science and innovation policy across the globe. In one definition, it is “a transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability, and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products.” In another, it is “a commitment of care for the future through collective stewardship of science and innovation in the present.” It has been enshrined in recent research calls at the European level, and its cognate “responsible development” has been part of the strategic vision of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative for a decade. Yet, despite a spate of attention, there is neither a clear, unified vision of what responsible innovation is, nor what it requires, nor what it can accomplish. Regardless of specific definition, responsible innovation is about enhancing the connections between the considered values of the wider community and the processes of policy decisions and science and technology development. This panel brings together a number of participants in an emerging Virtual Institute for Responsible Innovation to discuss recent research on responsible innovation as an object of study, and recent experiments with responsible innovation in policy and academic environments.