Originally introduced in several policy documents issued by different institutions belonging to the European Union (EU), the term responsible research and innovation (hereafter RRI) has gained considerable attention in recent years among researchers coming from different backgrounds and disciplines. RRI constitutes an attempt to articulate a theoretical framework that would shape the governance of science in Europe. While science education is mentioned in various EU policy documents as one of its strategic dimensions, the way in which RRI can actually be translated into science education is a topic that needs empirical investigation as well as theoretical elaboration. The overall aim of the paper is precisely to offer that. In the present article, we posit that RRI in science education can be experienced meaningfully by linking it to inquiry-based learning, which already stresses the importance of active participation as well as students' responsibility for discovering knowledge. To see this potential connection in practice, we conducted an ethnographic study involving seven Estonian science teachers, who agreed to be observed at least 3 times when they conducted inquiry-based learning lessons in their school. Specifically, the study aimed at acquiring a better understanding as to the meaning that the term responsibility can have during the different phases of inquiry-based lessons. The results of the ethnographic study allow us to come to the conclusion that RRI can be interpreted in science education as a type of meaningful engagement in and for an inquiry during which the students are given the opportunity to make meaningful decisions in the different inquiry phases and thus be able to take responsibility for the inquiry process.