[EN] 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. This work was supported by the Government of Spain through the 'Agencia Estatal de Investigacion' from the `Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad' [Grant Numbers CSO201676828-R and BES-2017-081141]