The concept of responsible research and innovation has its origin in publicly funded research. Much of the research activities and even more innovation activities which bring products and services happen in private companies. This editorial therefore aims to outline what RRI can mean in industrial complexes and describes the role that ORBIT can play in them. It draws on the work undertaken in the European project ‘Responsible-Industry’ and highlights the question of how the RRI discourse can be translated into a vocabulary familiar to companies.