The PRO-RES Guidance Framework for Scientific Research: A Novel Response to Long-Standing Issues

AbstractFor more than three quarters of a century the large-scale application of superconductors demanded the use of expensive liquid helium, rendering large-scale application of superconductors unfeasible. The only way out of this deadlock was the invention of high temperature or high TC superconductors. In 1986, J.G. Bednorz and K.A. Müller demonstrated superconductivity at the record temperature of 30 K. This publication fostered a scientific research rush that culminated in the development, by P. Chu, of a material that turned into a superconductor below 93 K. The stakes could not be higher from academic, technological and economic perspectives, since high TC superconductivity could bring a Nobel Prize in Physics to its creators, would open up the way to commercial applications of superconductors, triggering a major technological revolution, and most possibly, create a multibillion-dollar market. In this chapter, we discuss cases of possible breaches of research integrity that occurred during the so-called “race for the superconductor”, as was chronicled in the book “The Breakthrough: The Race for the Superconductor” by R.M. Hazen, vis-à-vis the values and principles established within the PRO-RES normative framework, which is being built to merge the principles of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), required from researchers, and research funding and performing organizations, with an aim to balance political, institutional and professional contradictions and constraints.