Shaping innovations: Scientists for a fair technology future!

Shaping innovations: Scientists for a fair technology future!

The growing need for responsibly designed technologies is obvious. The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now launched a new research cluster called TransforM to investigate and control innovative dynamics. Loud TUM The logic of innovations should be questioned. Rather than simply shedding light on how technologies can be made economically viable and socially acceptable, the goal is to identify which innovations are actually needed.

The research cluster focuses on questions relating to mobility equity, healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI) and regional competitiveness. It is important to overcome the existing separation between social sciences and technical and natural sciences. TransforM will work in an interdisciplinary manner and involve scientists from various disciplines such as governance, sociology and innovation economics.

Innovative platforms and citizen participation

A central element of TransforM is the creation of an integration platform called SCOPE, which is intended to make it possible to work on socio-technical issues together with technology partners. The example project for this initiative could be the study of autonomous driving across national borders. In order to respond to current challenges in the socio-technical world, TransforM plans to set up a “Real-time Response Team”.

Another aspect is the promotion of citizen participation through a “Public Technology Lab”. This should not only enable selective participation, but also create a permanent infrastructure that involves citizens directly in technology developments. The goal is to learn from existing projects in order to develop new forms of mobility and test their social integration.

Social responsibility and research

Federal President Frank Walter Steinmeier has repeatedly emphasized the social responsibility of scientists and engineers, which supports TUM in its efforts for responsible research and innovation. The STS Department TUM plays a central role here. It aims to integrate societal aspects into scientific work and technological innovation.

The principles of responsible research include openness, transparency, anticipation of possible consequences and strengthening social diversity. The STS Department actively promotes public and interest group participation to enable democratic shaping of research and technology policy.

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Innovations arise through interdisciplinary perspectives, like this DLR project sponsor confirmed. This has brought together competencies in the natural sciences, engineering, humanities and social sciences and pursues a mission-oriented high-tech strategy that is oriented towards social challenges. The expertise covers topics such as digitalization, intelligent mobility solutions and access to research data.

A central goal of these collaborations is to strengthen social cohesion and promote innovation in dialogue with society. In this way, technology and knowledge transfer as well as the exploitation of research results should be designed effectively.

The new TransforM research cluster at TUM represents an important step into the future that aims to meet both the technical and social demands of society. By combining research, citizen participation and interdisciplinary collaboration, groundbreaking solutions to urgent societal challenges could be developed.