30 years of ITAS
The concept of sustainability met with little interest when roughly 30 ITAS employees started their work in 1995 at today’s KIT Campus North. Although technology assessment was already advising the German Bundestag at the time, it was considered as “worrywarting” by many people and scientifically hardly recognized.
Times have changed: Everyone is talking about sustainability now. In the wake of the energy transition and the digitalization – which have both already been researched by the ITAS predecessor institutions since the 1980s – the need for TA and sustainability research has become more than clear.
Climate change, the necessary transformations, and the increasing desire for public participation have done the rest. The demand for scientific technology assessment is greater than ever.
Starting out as an advice-oriented field of research on the rather hidden grounds of the former research center, ITAS has developed steadily. Today, the institute – now located in the center of Karlsruhe – is a well-recognized institution in science and politics, but also in public and civil society.
This development has been accompanied by strong growth (today more than 150 researchers work at ITAS), many new topics, and networking with researchers from all over the world.
We are celebrating our anniversary on 30 June 2025 with a special lecture by sustainability expert Maja Göpel and the school competition “#KA2055: Unsere Stadt, unsere Zukunft“ (#KA2055: Our city, our future).
Celebrate with us!
What will life be like in Karlsruhe and the surrounding area in 2055? What technologies will we use and how will they change our lives? In the school competition “#KA2055: Unsere Stadt, unsere Zukunft“ (#KA2055: Our city, our future), ITAS invites young people to artistically depict their wishes and ideas.
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Maja Göpel, one of the most important voices in the field of sustainable development and transformation, is coming to Karlsruhe. On the occasion of the ITAS anniversary, she will speak on Monday, 30 June 2025, about how our society can look positively to the future despite crises and technological upheavals.
more“The future is open, not only in technology assessment, but also for ITAS itself. We are definitely well equipped. We will not run out of work.“
Armin Grunwald, Head of Institute
History of ITAS
| 2025 | 30 years of ITAS |
| 2025 | Launch of the KIT Sustainable Futures Lab. |
| 2024 | The first international handbook of TA, edited by Armin Grunwald, offers a comprehensive overview of the practices, theories, methods, and cultures of TA around the world. |
| 2024 | ITAS is the organizer of the international conference fPET – Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology in September in Karlsruhe. |
| 2024 | In November, ITAS organizes the 11th conference of the Netzwerk TA (NTA) in Berlin. This also marks the 20th anniversary of the NTA. |
| 2023/24 | TATuP is included the databases of Scopus and the Web of Science. |
| 2023 | In April, ITAS opens Karl9 - Science hub for technology and society. |
| 2023 | First technology-oriented real-world labs at KIT: Start of participatory technology assessment (also on robotic AI). |
| 2023 | ITAS is re-commissioned to operate the TAB (continuous advice to the German Bundestag since 1990). |
| 2022 | ITAS organizes the 5th European TA Conference in Karlsruhe. |
| 2021 | Torsten Fleischer and Rafaela Hillerbrand (until 2023) join the ITAS management as Deputy Heads of Institute. |
| 2020 | 30 years of TAB - contributions to forward-looking and precautionary policy-making. |
| 2019 | Foundation of the globalTA network. |
| 2017 | The redesigned ITAS journal TATuP – Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice is published peer reviewed and open access. |
| 2016 | Constanze Scherz is appointed Deputy Head of Institute. |
| 2015 | 20 years of ITAS (yearbook) and 25 years of TAB (TAB report). |
| 2015 | Michael Decker is appointed (with retrospective effect from October 2014) as the second Head of Institute. In October, he becomes Head of the KIT Division II “Informatics, Economics and Society.” |