News overview

What contribution to the political and social handling of disruptions can technology assessment make? This question is the focus of the conference of the European Parliamentary TA Network (EPTA), which will take place in Berlin on 17 October 2022.

The European TA Conference took place from 25 to 27 July 2022 in Karlsruhe. Researchers from all over the world gathered at ZKM and exchanged ideas regarding "Digital Future(s): TA in and for a Changing World". Now we have summed up the highlights of the event in a conference report.

With over 20 episodes, the podcast “Labor Zukunft – Forschung ohne Kittel” provides insights into the work of the District Future real-world lab and local sustainability projects. The format explores transformation processes on site.

Climate change has arrived in German cities. Heat and drought periods are becoming longer and hotter. To mitigate the consequences, researchers led by forest expert Somidh Saha recommend planting more trees to take advantage of their cooling potential.

Can modern societies get by with less energy than before? The current TATuP issue looks at the opportunities offered by the sufficiency concept and scenarios for lower energy consumption.

Because of their transformative nature, real-world labs raise particular ethical questions for those involved. A new project aims to address these issues and identify approaches to dealing with them.

Following the adoption of the new TAB work programme, the recent meeting of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment focused on the topic of “Genome Editing in Humans”.

Intelligent prostheses are an innovation that can bring back quality of life and participation to people with amputations. An ITAS team has dealt with the social, legal, and ethical challenges arising in this context.

The TAB report on energy saving effects in the building sector shows what property owners can do to save resources and money and how the state can help them. Policy brief TAB-Fokus is available in English.

Polarization, market-dominating platforms, fake news – democracy is under pressure and must face the challenges of the digital world. In a new anthology, researchers from TA and other disciplines search for possible solutions.

KIT has received the “National Prize – Education for Sustainable Development” from BMBF and UNESCO. Decisive factors were many offers with ITAS participation, such as the “Karlsruhe School of Sustainability” or the mobile participation laboratory “MobiLab.”

New methods report presents innovative participation procedures and discusses their potential benefits for parliamentary Technology Assessment.

On the occasion of World Malaria Day, technological approaches to combating malaria were the focus of a moderated panel discussion on 25 April 2022 as the start of the new event series “TA in dialogue” in the German Bundestag.

After 30 years in printed form TAB offers the TAB-Brief with information on TA at the German Bundestag as a compact digital newsletter in Englisch for subscription.

As a “pioneer of inter- and transdisciplinarity,” technology assessment plays an increasingly important role in academic teaching. What this development means for technology assessment (TA) is explored in the new issue of TATuP.

The efficient use and recycling of storage materials is essential for a sustainable energy supply. To meet the increasing demand for energy storage, ITAS investigates the use of aluminum in the “ALU-STORE” project.

What should the European battery landscape look like in a decade? Leading experts in Europe have drawn up a roadmap for transforming research in the field of emerging energy storage technologies. Particular focus: sustainability and circular economy.

In two newly published reports TAB sheds light on development trends in digital agricultural technologies and analyses the opportunities and risks of a systemically integrated agriculture. The corresponding Policy Briefs are now available in English.

How can employees use digital innovations to make companies more democratic? And what can they learn from cooperatives in this process? Henceforth, ITAS will address these questions on behalf of the Hans Böckler Foundation.

Our society is facing profound transformations of ways of living and economics towards a future viability and sustainability. The Karlsruhe Transformation Center for Sustainability and Cultural Change (KAT) supports these processes of change.

What expectations and wishes do citizens have of the work of researchers? In order to involve society more closely in the research work of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, ITAS will design annual dialogue events on current scientific topics.

For almost ten years, Real-world Labs have been supporting the transformation to more sustainability on site. Where their work stands today, asks the ITAS-based KAT at a conference on 2 and 3 June 2022 in Karlsruhe. Submission of contributions is open now.

One of the most complex tasks of the energy transition is the use of hydrogen in industrial processes. Together with Fraunhofer ISI, ITAS researchers have now analyzed the implementation of the European hydrogen strategy for the European Parliament.