The two houses of the German Parliament appointed Armin Grunwald to the national advisory group for the selection of a final repository site for highly radioactive waste. The group shall accompany the process as supervisor and mediator.

On 22 November 2016, the German Bundestag agreed in its resolution on the budget 2017 to the recommendation of the Committee on Budgets to increase the budget for scientific policy advice by the TAB.

The three major non-university research institutions in Germany are committed to taking a pioneering role in sustainability management. Their recently presented guidelines also bear the signature of ITAS.

In the TA project of the TAB, the relevant social questions and challenges are to be identified and analyzed on the basis of existing technical possibilities.

On Thursday, 20 October 2016, at 6 p.m. the next session of the ITAS series of events "technik.kontrovers" takes place. Scientists and the audience discuss the challenge of assessing the sustainability of products.

TA’s contribution to solving the "grand challenges" is the topic of the 7th conference of the Network Technology Assessment (NTA). The new concept of the journal Technology Assessment – Theory and Practice (TATuP) is also presented at the event.

ITAS mourns the loss of its long-time member of staff, an outstanding researcher in the field of technology assessment and the main architect of the scientific collaboration between Germany and Russia.

The issue no. 47 of the TAB-Brief deals primarily with aspects relevant to the digital transformation in the various educational and work contexts.

More participation through digital technology – this is the aim of the BMBF project TERRAIN with new human-machine interfaces. Researchers at ITAS address, among other things, the issue of social acceptance of this technology.

How can relevant technologies and flexibility options be integrated into the European energy system? The REFLEX project aims to analyze and model the energy system transformation and its impacts on environment and society.

Martin Sand received the Best Paper Award at this year’s Philosophy of Management conference. His paper "The virtues and vices of innovators" impressed the jury because of its philosophical clarity and distinct practical relevance.

The members of the commission on the "Storage of Highly Radioactive Waste Material" handed over their recommendations to the president of the German Bundestag on 5 July 2016. Armin Grunwald, head of ITAS, played a significant role in their preparation.

The District Future project was looking for ideas for “SustainabilityExperiments” in Karlsruhe until mid-June. The four winning teams can now put their concepts to the test in the urban space. The kick-off event will take place on Monday, 4 July 2016.

In contrast to classic genetic engineering, synthetic biology opens up advanced possibilities to design or re-design organisms. The related societal aspects are subject of the SYNENERGENE Forum on 24 and 25 June 2016.

In the project "Challenges for plant breeding" an overview of potential and tasks, strengths and weaknesses of the German plant breeding has to be framed.

The presentation and discussion of the results of the TAB project on "New electronic media and addictive behavior" will take place in Berlin on 9th of June 2016.

The Assisted Living project brings together a group of experts in information technology, health science, social science and ethics from Norway, Germany and UK, in order to advance Responsible Research and Innovation in the field of welfare technology.

The project "District of the Future – the Freiburg Sustainability Compass at the Urban Lab" is finished. In this context the team of "District Future – Urban Lab" completed the evaluation of the 60 sustainability targets.

The challenges of the energy transition – from demand and user perspective – were at the heart of the Helmholtz Alliance ENERGY-TRANS, which was coordinated by ITAS for five years. The partners met from March 14 to 15 at the final conference in Berlin.

The ITAS project "District Future – Urban Lab" has been awarded the quality seal "Werkstatt N" by the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) of the Federal Government.

Urban ropeway systems can contribute to a sustainable transport system. However, such projects often fail due to strong resistance. A new project will provide information on the practicality of such systems in Baden-Württemberg.

The second "German Future Earth Summit" was held in Berlin on 28 and 29 January 2016 in the context of the Future Earth Program.

Assistive technologies can support the inclusion of people with disabilities in society, education and jobs.

For the project "Ausbau regenerativer Energieerzeugung" the TAB is looking for an expert. Deadline for submitting tender documents is 04.03.2016.

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at KIT has awarded an honorary doctorate to Peter Janich in recognition of his contributions to the philosophy of technology and technology assessment.

Till 28 February 2016 PhD students may apply for the Summer School in Donostia / San Sebastian (Spain) on "Techno Science Societies: Between Myth Formation and Societal Structure".

The members of the Network Technology Assessment (NTA) met in Karlsruhe on 26 and 27 November 2015. It was the 11th annual meeting since the foundation of the network. The meeting was accompanied by various workshops.

The interdisciplinary conference "Big Data and Society – Between Causality and Correlation" will be held at the University of Münster on 15 and 16 February 2016. Anyone with an interest in the topic is welcome to participate.

Transdisciplinary “real labs” are becoming increasingly popular. The current thematic focus presents, among others, results from four real laboratories in Baden-Württemberg. Also in this issue: an outlook on the redesigned TATuP appearing in 2017.

This volume, co-edited by ITAS scientist Christian Dieckhoff, scrutinizes the scientific possibilities of energy scenarios and calls for a reflected and pragmatic use of the knowledge gained from them.

In his new book, Stefan Böschen, researcher at ITAS, examines the transformation of knowledge relations. He recommends the introduction of new analytical tools to capture the changing structures.

The new TAB background paper focusses on RRI as an approach for designing research and innovation processes, that gains importance above all on European but increasingly also on national level.

Der Themenschwerpunkt des aktuellen Hefts widmet sich verschiedenen Perspektiven der Forschung auf das Konzept von Postwachstum in Technik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft.

Researchers from Japan and Europe reflect together in this book on country-specific developments to identify the required conditions to anchor technology assessment in science, politics, and society.

The TAB report no. 171 is concerned with the digitization as comprehensive process of social change, even in the institutions of education.

The book "Electronic Democracy in Europe" edited by ITAS jointly with Fraunhofer ISI and ITA Vienna explores the current state and the perspectives of web-based political communication at the European level.

Interdisciplinary teams of the Helmholtz Alliance ENERGY-TRANS have examined how electromobility and a lower energy demand of buildings can contribute to a sustainable energy system. Two policy briefs are addressed to policy makers.

Since 2013 the TAB works on the focus "discourse analysis and dialogue with societal actors". The report presents the Stakeholder Panel TA and the results of the first undertaken survey.

Future challenges for technology assessment (TA) were in the focus of the international conference "The Next Horizon of Technology Assessment" in February 2015. The papers and discussions are now available in the proceedings.

This publication is dedicated to the widely debated issue of "Ageing and Technology" focusing on old agers as technology users, assistive technologies, and policy making and discourses of ageing.

The book published by Nomos is documenting the contributions of the conference held in Vienna. The central theme of the conference was "Responsible Innovation – New Impetus for Technology Assessment?"