The mutual exchange of knowledge between research, politics, and society is a central task of technology assessment (TA). Researcher should make debates more objective and draw attention to the challenges and opportunities of scientific developments.

On the one hand, the aim is to strengthen the scientific maturity of citizens and to enable them – or their political representatives – to make decisions on the basis of the best available scientific evidences. On the other hand, it is about responsibly shaping technological innovation by considering the knowledge and experience of the people involved.

We are convinced that technology assessment requires the most diverse perspectives available. For a long time, we have therefore involved in our studies not only researchers from various disciplines, but also citizens and stakeholders from civil society, politics, and the economy. ITAS researchers develop specific integrative research approaches as well as methods for participatory formats and apply them in a variety of thematic contexts. The results, in turn, find their way into policy and societal advice and the scientific discourse.

ITAS activities in the field of knowledge transfer range from real-world lab research to topic-specific citizens’ dialogues and policy advice at national and European level to citizen science projects, formats of scientific communication, and the institute’s own forms of publication.

Citizens’ dialogues:

• Karlsruhe citizens’ dialogue “Autonome Technologien im europäischen Kontext” (Autonomous technologies in the European context – public dialogue process conducted on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research)
• Citizens’ dialogue “Künstliche Intelligenz in unserem Alltag” (Public dialog process within the framework of KIT-Science Week)
• When Science Meets Crises (First Annual Citizens' Dialogue on behalf of KIT) 
• Reward climate protection! But how? (Dialog with citizens on the occasion of the KIT Science Week 2023)
• Citizen dialogue "Global turbulence, local participation" on the occasion of KIT Science Week 2025
• Participation procedures in research organizations (PaFo)

Policy advice:

• Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) (has been providing advice to the members of parliament since 1990 on all matters related to scientific or technological progress)
• European Technology Assessment Group (ETAG) (network of European TA institutions coordinated by ITAS, provides advice to the panel for Scientific Technological Options Assessment (STOA) of the European Parliament)
• Foresight and technology assessment for the Austrian Parliament (preparation of regular monitoring reports as a partner of the Institute of Technology Assessment in Vienna)

Scientific communication and publication activities:

• technik.kontrovers (interactive thematic evenings on current topics at the interface of technology and society)
• TATuP – Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice (journal published by ITAS that presents research results for transdisciplinary stakeholders)
• openTA – Information platform for the German-speaking TA community with news, events, methods, and databases
• ITAS researchers in the media (a selection)

New forms of knowledge transfer:

• Interactive exhibitions „Roboterhauptstadt Karlsruhe“ (robotics und artificial intelligence), „... sag du es mir" (trust in science) and „Wer entscheidet denn sowas?“ (final storage and democracy)
• SPARK – Space for human-centered transdisciplinary research and real-world-lab incubator (ab Sommer 2026)