Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a term used in Europe to advance in the consideration of societal and ethical dimensions of research and innovation. RRI involves two main challenges: its rationale its practical development. The legitimacy of RRI is based on its ethical foundation. Different ethical traditions, such as

procedural ethics, have been identified as underpinning the RRI conceptualizations so far. The objective of this article is to examine the evolution of discursive ethics proposed by J. Habermas and K.O. Apel, and civic ethics as a normative framework for RRI, and to explore their development and feasibility and how they are affected by the tensions that such a paradigmatic change might imply.