This document constitutes Deliverable D2.4 of the HYDROPTICS project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.871529. An initial version of this deliverable is available as Deliverable D2.1 (M24). The purpose of this document is to demonstrate the completion of a structured and methodological Ethical Impact Assessment (EIA), which reflects both the existing literature and the Research and Innovation (R&I) practice, tailoring it to the way R&I projects are organised. The methodology was both structured, by laying down clear steps and criteria, by providing options for structuring EIAs for different scales of R&I projects and for different contexts of these projects (e.g. both for publicly funded and privately funded projects).
In addition, the deliverable presents a conducted Gender Equality Plan (GEP) which was defined based on the guidelines presented by the European Commission (EC) in the context of the new Horizon Europe program. This action plan was finalised by setting out organisational priorities for addressing gender equality which guided the identification of the activities and the monitoring of the plans. GEP was devised according to national and European laws and aligned with national initiatives and actions focusing on equality of women and men, rights, discrimination banning, equality treatment, harassment in workplace, social responsibility of organisations etc. This deliverable also sets out the data that were collected, generated and/or processed by the consortium within the remit of the HYDROPTICS project and especially the way such data and other research outputs were expected to be handled in terms of, inter alia, storage, security, and availability, while also laid down considerations related to the FAIR Guiding Principles.