Integrated technology development

Invitation to the final workshop of the BMBF initiative project INTEGRAM

The requirement to consider ethical, legal, social, and economic aspects when developing new technologies is not new. However, the strong emphasis that the keyword "integration" has experienced is new in this context. In recent years, there have been increasing demands that ethical, legal, social and economic aspects should no longer be researched only as an accompaniment, but must be integrated from the outset into concrete technology development projects.

Therefore, interdisciplinarity is one of the keys to better integration: technology developers should collaborate interdisciplinarly in concrete development projects with representatives from the fields of ethics, law, social sciences and economics. The idea seems to be convincing that the integration of the mentioned aspects would succeed better through the cooperation with suiting experts in the process. However, the implementation in daily project work is a major challenge in practice. In addition, 'integrated technology development' raises questions at the conceptual level.

For three years, the project INTEGRAM has been exploring the possibilities and limitations of integrating ethical, legal, social and economic aspects into technology development projects. The project team researched interdisciplinary topics, developed a concept for the practical implementation of integrated technology development and disseminated the topic in relevant knowledge communities. We would like to present the results  at the closing event and use them as an occasion for joint discussions, exchange of experience and networking. In three different interactive formats, three levels will be focused:

• Challenges: Methodological, epistemic and structural problems of integrated technology development will be discussed on the basis of scientific analyzes and practical impressions
• Implementation: As result of the project INTEGRAM, an Integrated Technology Development Handbook (Handbuch integrierte Technikentwicklung) will be published by Springer VS in 2019. We will present the basic conception of the handbook and selected work materials.
• Impulses for the future: Impulses for the further development of integrated research will be put up for discussion in a slam of utopias. Furthermore, the BMBF Integrated Research Network (Dr. Andreas Bischof, TU Chemnitz), which is currently constituting itself, will be presented.

The workshop aims at anyone who is interested in findings and ongoing discussions about the possibilities and limitations of integrated technology development. Which disciplines you feel affiliated to and whether you have many or few experiences and prior knowledge does not matter.