The successful urban transition lab “District Future – Urban Lab” plans to establish a “Transformation Center for Sustainable Futures and Cultural Change” in Karlsruhe. The project is funded by the KIT with 150.000 euros in the next year. 

On Wednesday, 22 November 2017, at 6 p.m. the next session of the ITAS series of events “technik.kontrovers” will take place. Scientists and the audience discuss about the role of science in uncertain times.

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), an ITAS team researched the technical and social aspects and concepts of in vitro meat over a period of two years. The results are now available.

Since September 2017, Karsten Wendland has been a visiting professor at ITAS. The media computer scientist addresses the subject of “artificial consciousness” in Karlsruhe, which is said to be the Holy Grail in the field of artificial intelligence.

How can highly radioactive waste be safely disposed of? Researchers from various disciplines will discuss this at the ENTRIA final conference in Braunschweig from 26 - 30 September 2017. ITAS participates with numerous talks. Citizens are invited to join.

On 31 July and 1 August 2017, the ITAS, together with the Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management (University Stuttgart) organises an interdisciplinary workshop for modelling and assessing the urban water-energy nexus.

The TAB is looking for experts for the topics “Somatic Gene Therapy” and “Algorithms in Digital Media and the Impact on the Formation of Opinions”.

ITAS will support the analysis of medical risks in the introduction of emergency data management (NFDM) on the electronic health card.

Promoting and interconnecting PhD theses on the supply of resources and energy is the aim of a joint course of lectures by ITAS and the Universities Stuttgart and Pforzheim. Now the PhD students officially started their work.

As part of the Global Consortium for Sustainability Outcomes (GCSO), ITAS will participate in the sustainability training of urban managers. It will also advise partner universities on energy, water, and waste issues on the campus on a real-lab basis.

TAB is looking for experts in six different projects. Topics are (among other things) electromagnetic fields, sustainability assessment of agricultural systems, light pollution and autonomous weapon systems.

On 6 and 7 May 2017 young researchers from the humanities and social sciences meet up at ITAS to examine the turn of the millennium as an efficacious reference point for future visions of all kinds. Registrations are still possible until 23 April 2017.

The aim of the INOPRO project is to develop intuitively controllable prostheses which adapt to the needs of their users. ITAS supports the innovation process and analyzes the ethical, legal, and social dimensions of this technology.

What is new in Europe’s TA scene? The third issue (winter 2016/2017) of the “International Corner” informs about the latest projects, publications and news from TA institutions all over Europe.

How could native forests be better protected from the extreme impacts of climate change, and biodiversity be preserved? These questions are being addressed by the ITAS in cooperation with forestry scientists of the University of Freiburg.

Companies in the EU still lack experience in RRI practices. The new PRISMA project, with eight Europe-wide industrial pilot projects, aims to show the added value of opening up the innovation process for social engagement and gender issues.

The TOPIC of issue 3/2017 builds a bridge from technology assessment (TA) to agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS). The authors show for the first time the potential that lies in linking both areas.

TAB study published on research and product development to combat neglected diseases.

The aim of the TA pre-study was to provide an overview of the current state of the art of social bots, application fields and users, dissemination, and actual and assumed risks.

Sophie Kuppler, ITAS expert for nuclear waste disposal and governance, investigates in her Ph.D. thesis whether public participation approaches in Germany and Switzerland lead to a fundamental change in nuclear waste politics and policy.

The issue No. 48 of the TAB-Brief reflects the diversity of the topics, the investigation of which will be commissioned by the Bundestag to the TAB.

How flexible can nuclear power plants be operated and is their operation compatible with a high proportion of fluctuating feed-in through renewable energies? These key questions are addressed in the TAB-Hintergrundpapier Nr. 21.

The Helmholtz Alliance ENERGY-TRANS has explored the energy transition from an interdisciplinary perspective. The book presents key findings of a research project on the transformation of the energy system.

Technology visions, future scenarios, development models: Different imaginations of the future are getting more and more attention in public discourse. Researchers now put the question how TA should deal with this development up to debate.