Jan-Werner Müller is Professor for Political Theory at Princeton University. He is co-founder of the European College of Liberal Arts (ECLA; today: Bard College Berlin). In addition to numerous published articles in the international press, Müller is the author of various monographs such as “Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth-Century Europe” (2013), “Was ist Populism? Ein Essay” (2016), or “Furcht und Freiheit. Für einen anderen Liberalismus” (2019). His essay “Was ist Populismus?” has been translated into numerous languages and is considered a central work for understanding contemporary political developments. Currently, Müller is developing a reassessment of intermediary institutions in democracy, which he will examine in the lecture.

Since 1991, the DBU has funded more than 10,000 projects with € 1.84 billion. At the same time, the foundation capital (€ 1.28 billion at the beginning) was increased to around € 2.32 billion.

Funded projects should achieve sustainable effects in practice, give impulses and lead to a “multiplier effect”. It is the objective of the DBU to contribute to the solution of current environmental problems, in particular, which result from unsustainable business practices and lifestyles. The DBU sees the crucial challenges primarily in the areas of climate change, biodiversity loss, unsustainable use of natural resources, and harmful emissions. The funding topics are linked both to current scientific findings on the Planetary Boundaries and to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The Board of Trustees

The DBU is chaired by the Board of Trustees whose members are appointed by the Federal Government. It is composed of federal and state politicians as well as representatives of other socially relevant groups.

The Leopoldina champions the freedom and appreciation of science. It promotes a scientifically enlightened society and the responsible application of scientific insight for the benefit of humankind and the natural world. In its interdisciplinary discourse, the Academy transcends thematic, political, and cultural boundaries. It is also an advocate of human rights.

It is the role of the Leopoldina, in co-operation with other national and international organisations, to identify and analyse scientific issues of social importance. The Leopoldina presents its policy recommendations in a scientifically qualified, independent, transparent, and prospective manner, ever mindful of the standards and consequences of science.

As we move into a world in which algorithms, robots, and avatars play an ever-increasing role, we need to better understand the nature of AI and its implications for human agency. Helga Nowotny argues that at the heart of our trust in AI lies a paradox: we leverage AI to increase control over the future and uncertainty, while at the same time the performativity of AI, the power it has to make us act in the ways it predicts, reduces our agency over the future.

These developments also challenge the narrative of progress, which played such a central role in modernity and is based on the hubris of total control. We are now moving into an era where this control is limited as AI monitors our actions, posing the threat of surveillance, but also offering the opportunity to reappropriate control and transform it into care.

Helga Nowotny is one of the most prominent scholars in science studies worldwide, an area that counted Yehuda Elkana as one of its pioneers and promoters. For several decades Helga Nowotny has been one of the most influential institution builders in European higher education and research. She has worked with European intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and bodies, such as the European Science Foundation, governmental agencies in several countries of East and West as well as independent organizations and committees of scholars. She has taken part in or directly led, the design and establishment of innovative new institutions, such as the European Research Council, Collegium Budapest or Central European University.

The Yehuda Elkana Fellow’s activities are held in partnership with Bard College through the Open Society University Network and supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.

Such questions are complex, and it for this reason that the Research Centre "Normative Orders" of Goethe University in Frankfurt works on an interdisciplinary basis: from philosophy, history, political science and law to ethnology, economics, sociology and theology.

The Workshop is organised by Stephanie Ettmeier and Marie Huber, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Global History at the HU Berlin. Taking our own research projects – dealing with the postcolonial economy of Francophone West Africa, and the recovery of the German economy from the Great Depression under the Nazis from 1933 onwards, respectively – as a starting point, we want to invite others working on economic experiences and expectations to discuss these questions with us. In a critical thinking and discussion focused workshop format, we want to strengthen interdisciplinary conversation and provide methodological impulses for a broad range of research topics.  

Keynote Lectures

Ute Röschenthaler, Universität Mainz, will give a keynote lecture and provide valuable input during the discussions.

The institutes’ mandate is the interdisciplinary investigation of all relevant aspects of modern marine sciences, from sea floor geology to marine meteorology. Research is conducted worldwide in all oceans and adjacent seas.

The institute has four major research divisions:

• Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics
• Marine Biogeochemistry
• Marine Ecology
• Dynamics of the Ocean Floor.

GEOMAR cooperates closely with the University of Kiel in the education of future marine scientists. Curricula include “Physics of the Earth System: Meteorology – Oceanography – Geophysics” for the Bachelor’s degree and internationally oriented Master’s courses such as “Climate Physics: Meteorology and Physical Oceanography” and “Biological Oceanography.” The institute also provides additional contributions to other curricula, such as Geology and Geophysics. GEOMAR also has cooperative programmes with other universities around the world, and special programmes for pupils and teachers aim to stimulate interest in the marine sciences at an early stage.

In addition, the institute operates three research vessels, state-of-the-art equipment such as the manned submersible JAGO, the deep-sea robots ROV KIEL6000, PHOCA and ABYSS as well as several major laboratories, access to high-performance computing facilities and an attractive public aquarium.

Since end of 2017, GEOMAR operates a science and logistic station on the Cap Verdean Islands, the Ocean Science Centre Mindelo.

GEOMAR is among the three leading institutions in the field of marine sciences in Europe. Jointly with the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom and Ifremer in France, GEOMAR has established the “G3 group” of national marine research centres. 

GEOMAR cooperates with a number of small companies active in marine technology and science, some of which were founded by former staff members of the institute. 

In addition, GEOMAR is active in a number of national and international committees and strategic alliances such as the German Alliance for Marine Research (DAM), the German Marine Research Consortium (KDM), the German Climate Consortium (DKK), the European Marine Board and the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO).

• AWI: Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
• DLR: German Aerospace Center
• FZJ: Forschungszentrum Jülich
• GEOMAR: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
• GFZ: Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – German Research Centre for Geosciences
• HZG: Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht, Centre for Materials and Coastal Research
• KIT: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
• UFZ: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

The platform is coordinated at Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – German Research Centre for Geosciences.

The eskp.de website vividly conveys knowledge on the central topics of natural hazards, climate change, pollutants and the effects of the energy turnaround on the environment in the form of scientific articles, interviews, video clips, science GIFs, information graphics and more.

ESKP processes research findings for society. The range of expertise in the Research Area Earth and Environment allows complex topics to be examined from different perspectives and to be presented as a whole, in particular via the format of the “Themenspezial” (currently only in German). The contributions also point out open questions as an impulse back into the science community and provide action options. The aim is to improve the basis for decision-making in politics and society.

Founded in 2006, ITIF is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute—a think tank. Its mission is to formulate, evaluate, and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovation and boost productivity to spur growth, opportunity, and progress. ITIF’s goal is to provide policymakers around the world with high-quality information, analysis, and recommendations they can trust. To that end, ITIF adheres to a high standard of research integrity with an internal code of ethics grounded in analytical rigor, policy pragmatism, and independence from external direction or bias.

Focus

ITIF focuses on a host of critical issues at the intersection of technological innovation and public policy—including economic issues related to innovation, competitiveness, trade, and globalization; and technology-related issues in the areas of information technology and data, broadband telecommunications, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, agricultural biotechnology, and clean energy. (Read more about ITIF’s policy goals and values.)

Ongoing research programs and educational activities include:

• Setting the policy agenda on technology, innovation, and global competition issues by producing original research reports and analytical commentary;
• Shaping public debate by hosting events, giving speeches and presentations, providing official testimony, publishing op-eds, and serving as expert issue analysts in the news media; and
• Advising policymakers through direct interaction in Washington, D.C., and other state, national, and regional capitals around the world.

On the strength and influence of this work, the University of Pennsylvania has ranked ITIF as the world’s leading think tank for science and technology policy, and one of the top 27 U.S. think tanks overall.

Expertise

ITIF is led by its president and founder, Robert D. Atkinson, an internationally recognized policy scholar and widely published author whom The New Republic has named one of the “three most important thinkers about innovation,” Washingtonian Magazine has called a “Tech Titan,” and Government Technology Magazine has judged to be one of the 25 top “Doers, Dreamers and Drivers of Information Technology.” Under Atkinson, ITIF’s team of policy analysts and fellows includes authors and recognized experts in the fields of economics, tax policy, trade, telecommunications, privacy, cybersecurity, and life sciences, among many others.

ITIF is home to the highly regarded Center for Data Innovation, which develops and promotes policy ideas to capitalize on the tremendous economic and social benefits that data-driven innovation can offer. ITIF also launched—and spearheads—the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance, an international network of think tanks that conduct evidence-based research into policies that can foster greater trade liberalization, curb “innovation mercantilism,” and encourage governments to play proactive roles in spurring innovation and productivity.

The Executive Board is made up of the President, the Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, and four Vice Presidents. The Board is elected by a majority of the Wahlversammlung and is responsible for the overall management and development of the institution. A candidate for President is proposed by the extended Senate and the University Council; the latter is also involved in the election of other members of the Executive Board.

The University Council is made up of 11 highly-distinguished individuals from outside the university, including a representative of the Hessen Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and the Arts. The Council helps to appoint the Executive Board, approves the annual financial statement, and is involved in major decisions regarding foundation assets. 

The Senate is made up of nine tenured professors, three students, three members of the scientific staff, and two administrative staff members.The Senate is responsible, among other things, for electing the President and the Vice Presidents; making decisions on matters related to study, research, teaching, and learning; and making recommendations on strategy and budget planning and faculty appointments. 

The Board can make recommendations to the Senate on academic and other matters and serves as the chair of the Senate and Benefactors Council (an advisory board made up of major benefactors to the university). For many matters related to budget, personnel, management, and administration, the Board is expanded to include the respective Deans, as well as representatives for women, students, and the staff.

We explore new models of thought and action

Modern societies are based on ever-changing sets of norms, procedures and structures that are intended to enable free and democratic coexistence. In times of fundamental social, economic and technical transformation, however, some of these institutions are reaching the limits of their ability to change and "broken concepts" are emerging. This term refers to ways of thinking, patterns of action or explanatory models that are so deeply connected to their previous context that they now seem to have come from a different era and need to be rethought. We want to research such broken concepts – such as the once-meaningful distinction between the offline and online world – and help overcome them by offering new models of thought and action. 

By doing so, we are actively shaping the society of the future. Based on the scientific competences brought together at the institute and its dedication to interdisciplinarity, HIIG can engage with current topics such as the "platformisation" of the economy and society or the use of artificial intelligence and question the underlying concepts, structures and norms.

In detail, the team of authors examined the regulation scenario "REG", the carbon pricing scenario "CPRICE" and the mixed scenario "MIX". Evaluation criteria were short-term feasibility and long-term goal achievement. As a result, the two dozen or so experts recommended that the European Union should consistently use carbon pricing as the core instrument of climate policy. According to the paper, the ambitious climate goal will be missed if policymakers choose the path of least resistance.

At first glance, the familiar mix of instruments seems to be the easiest path to take, but in the long run it may involve risks. It will only work if the instruments and enforcement mechanisms are well coordinated. Otherwise, measures can hinder each other and will not have the desired effects. According to the Ariadne report, it is better to align the instruments and measures with the carbon price, and at the same time organise a continuous adaptation process.

The Ariadne energy transition project guides through a joint learning process with politics, business, and society. It also researches options for energy transition, and provides political decision-makers with important orientation knowledge.

Further information:

The Ariadne press release on the new Ariadne Dossier can be found here (English). The Ariadne Dossier itself (in German) can be found here.

The Fraunhofer IVI’s facilities and large equipment include high-performance laboratories, innovative test platforms and vehicles as well as modern hardware and software. In 2013, the institute’s research infrastructure was expanded by a new technical center including a vehicle hall and an adjacent test track.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are defined in a list of 169 SDG Targets. Progress towards these Targets is agreed to be tracked by 232 unique Indicators. Here is the full list of definitions. This new version of our SDG-Tracker was launched on 28th June 2018. We will keep this up-to-date with the most recent data and SDG developments through to the end of the 2030 Agenda. For many Indicators data is available, but major data gaps remain. If you are aware of high-quality data we have yet to include please notify us. We hope that this collaborative approach allows us to support the United Nations in developing the most complete and up-to-date sources for tracking global progress to 2030.

Our mission: Foster research, education, and knowledge transfer in Informatics

Our goals:

• Foster quality of research in Informatics.
• Foster quality of education in Informatics.
• Foster knowledge transfer between academia and industry and society.
• Engage with society on the nature and impact of Informatics.
• Promote quality standards and best practices in research, education, and knowledge transfer.
• Foster relations between academia and government and public institutions.
• Foster co-operation with organisations having complementary goals.

Our clients predominantly comprise building companies, mechanical engineering firms, plant manufacturers, contractors, developers, architects, planners and licensing authorities, as well as private and public-sector institutions engaged in construction research. The application of building science expertise to related areas of specialization has expanded our circle of partners to include companies from the automotive and aviation industries. We carry out complex building physics studies at our efficient and well-equipped laboratories and test centers and at our outdoor testing site in Holzkirchen, which to the best of our knowledge is the largest facility of its kind. Modern laboratory measuring techniques and computational methods help researchers develop and optimize building products for practical applications. We also carry out experiments in environmental test chambers, simulation facilities and existing buildings to assess components and overall systems for new buildings and renovation projects based on the principles of building physics.

The Fraunhofer IBP has been approved by the German building inspection authorities as a testing, monitoring and certification center for building materials and building techniques in Germany and the rest of Europe. Four of the institute’s test laboratories have been granted flexible accreditation by the German accreditation body Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH (DAkkS) in accordance with DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025. This entitles them to develop new test methods and to modify existing methods.

caesar is part of a cluster for neurosciences in the Bonn-Cologne region and has multiple ties with the University of Bonn and University of Cologne. In collaboration with the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, the University of Bonn and Florida Atlantic University, caesar runs the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Brain and Behavior. This first transatlantic IMPRS graduate program aims to train students in a large range of cutting-edge techniques which are currently instrumental in the quest for understanding brain circuit function in the whole animal and its role in defining behavior.

The institute is operated by a non-profit foundation under private law. The president of the Max Planck Society chairs the foundation board. Trustors are the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. caesar is evaluated by a scientific advisory board. The evaluation is effected according to the procedures and criteria of the Max Planck Society.

That makes DESY not only a magnet for more than 3000 guest researchers from over 40 countries every year, but also a coveted partner for national and international cooperations. Committed young researchers find an exciting interdisciplinary setting at DESY. The research centre offers specialized training for a large number of professions. DESY cooperates with industry and business to promote new technologies that will benefit society and encourage innovations. This also benefits the metropolitan regions of the two DESY locations, Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin.

In response to increasing public pressure to tackle hate speech and other challenging content, platform companies have turned to algorithmic content moderation systems. These automated tools promise to be more effective and efficient in identifying potentially illegal or unwanted material. But algorithmic content moderation also raises many questions – all of which eschew simple answers. Where is the line between hate speech and freedom of expression – and how to automate this on a global scale? Should platforms scale the use of AI tools for illegal online speech, like terrorism promotion, or also for regular content governance? Are platforms’ algorithms over-enforcing against legitimate speech, or are they rather failing to limit hateful content on their sites? And how can policymakers ensure an adequate level of transparency and accountability in platforms’ algorithmic content moderation processes?

The subject area requires interdisciplinary research, which is why the professional backgrounds of the Institute’s researchers are adequately diverse. The organisational structure of the Institute is based on two main subject areas – the field of communication science and the field of law – where the latter is not only focused on legal matters as such, but also on research concerning regulatory structures. Further, international comparative research is of increasing importance for the Institute. Thus, the Institute is actively involved in several international research networks.

The Institute is named after Hans Bredow, who played an important role in the development of broadcasting technology. He served as the “Rundfunkstaatssekretär” [State Secretary of Broadcasting] in the Weimar Republic, but stepped down from his office on the day the National Socialists took power. Later, he contributed a lot to the development of a public broadcasting system in the young Federal Republic of Germany. At that time, it also became clear that the area of media development is so important that it should be covered by an independent research institution. In 1950, Universität Hamburg and the broadcasting corporation “Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk” thus founded the Hans-Bredow-Institut as an independent institution focusing on this field of research. Since then, the Institute is a so-called “An-Institut” of Universität Hamburg: legally independent, but connected to Universität Hamburg in many ways.

The Mainz-based biotech company BioNTech, which recently presented the first promising results for a coronavirus vaccine together with the US company Pfizer, is already conducting research on the next generation of RNA drugs at DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III. Using the P12 beamline, operated by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL, BioNTech has been investigating, together with the Universities of Mainz, Tel Aviv and Leiden as well as the Research Centre Jülich and EMBL, how so-called messenger RNA (mRNA) can be packaged better so as to be more effective in the target organism. The researchers are reporting a number of results in three papers, published in the journals Applied Nano Materials, Cells and Langmuir. The papers also illustrate the potential of analytical research carried out with the help of the research infrastructure available on the DESY campus.

The digital conference will focus on the transformation of the economy and society to shape a sustainable future. The event will be hosted by Svenja Schulze, German Minister of the Environment, and Dirk Messner, President of the German Environment Agency.

The agenda for the conference can be found here.

In light of the existing and expected restrictions on travel and group gatherings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the decision was taken to hold the conference as a virtual event. Attendees can participate in the conference through a live stream on the homepage of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety, and will have the opportunity to interact with speakers and other participants using voting tools and Q&A sessions (no installation needed). Links will be provided in the official invitation. There will be no registration and the conference will be held in English.

Die Einwahldaten werden nach der Anmeldung übermittelt. Oxford University Press 2020 Veranstalter: Forschungsverbund "Normative Ordnungen" der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung | Hans-Bredow-Institut, Sustainable Computing Lab, WU Wien, Humboldt-Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft (HIIG) und Oxford University Press

Join ITIF for a presentation of a new report on gene-edited solutions for climate change and a panel discussion on the implications of these technologies.

Speakers 

David M. Hart

Senior Fellow, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Moderator

Val Giddings

Senior Fellow, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Presenter

Robert Rozansky

Former Senior Policy Analyst, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Presenter

Pamela Ronald

Professor, Dept. of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center, UC Davis, Panelist

Scott Knight

Head of Genome Editing and Yield, Disease & Quality Research, Bayer Crop Science, Panelist

More than 20 innovative demonstrators and test systems in our application center illustrate the current state of logistics research for the no.1 future industry

Within the context of our virtual tour we give you an insight into the future of production and logistics, for example:

... how autonomous transport vehicles can organize themselves highly dynamically with up to 10m/s in a swarm, accept orders independently, negotiate and link up for transport orders thanks to artificial intelligence.

... how virtual reality (VR) can be used to provide new employees with the knowledge they need quickly and without disrupting ongoing operations and how such virtual reality learning environments can become part of a training, further education and planning room for logistics experts.

... how smart glasses and scanner gloves help retail workers carry out the daily stock control quicker and more economically.

... how digital assistance systems in intelligent shelves support employees in the picking process.

Finally, I propose a statistical test as a baseline to identify and assess potential cases of algorithmic discrimination in Europe. Adoption of this statistical test will help push forward academic and policy debates around scalable solutions for fairness and non-discrimination in automated systems in Europe.

Jan Sowa is an Associate Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw. From January to June 2020 he is a Visiting Fellow at the IWM.

The European Commission has created Missions as part of its Horizon Europe R&I Framework. The goal of the Missions is to leverage scientific knowledge alongside other forms of knowledge and to partner with multiple societal actors to address critical global challenges (climate, carbon neutral cites or food security amongst others).

A key goal of Horizon Europe Missions is to engage citizens as co-producers of knowledge and partners to build solutions. The talk presents the concept of mission-oriented research and innovation and elaborates on the key challenges and opportunities this presents for research and education organisations.

Dr. Asuncion T. Lera St. Clair, philosopher and sociologist, works as Senior Principal Scientist for DNV GL Group Technology and Research (Norway) and is Senior Advisor for the Earth System Services Unit of the Barcelona SuperComputing Centre (Spain). She is Member Horizon Europe Mission Board for Climate Change Adaptation and Societal Transformation, member of Future Earth Advisory Board, and Advisor to the Sustainability in the Digital Age Initiative.

TAB's policy brief in English TAB-Fokus no. 24 PDF [2,58 MB] provides an overview of Legal Tech services and applications, assesses the potentials, risks and opportunities involved and explores further potential needs for action.

This blog post draws on data and research discussed in our entries on Environmental impacts of food production and CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

What is the best way to reduce the carbon footprint of our diet?

I have shown previously that what we choose to eat has the largest impact, making a bigger difference than how far our food has traveled, or how much packaging it’s wrapped in. This is because only a small fraction comes from transport and packaging and most of our food emissions come from processes on the farm, or from land use change.

Regardless of whether you compare the footprint of foods in terms of their weight (e.g. one kilogram of cheese versus one kilogram of peas); protein content ; or calories, the overall conclusion is the same: plant-based foods tend to have a lower carbon footprint than meat and dairy. In many cases a much smaller footprint.

As an example: producing 100 grams of protein from peas emits just 0.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂eq). To get the same amount of protein from beef, emissions would be nearly 90 times higher, at 35 kgCO₂eq.

The lecture will be held in English.

Peter Söderbaum, (2019), Ecological Economics in relation to a digital world, World Economics Association (WEA) Conferences, No. 1 2019, Going Digital, 15th November to 20th December, 2019

The first part of the event consists of three virtual parallel workshops. The HIIG is proud to host the online workshop: “Citizens, give us your problems! How to Open Data without giving it away.” The event will conclude with a panel discussion about the workshops outcomes and the overarching question of how to enable a sustainable digitalisation in cities like Berlin. The virtual panel discussion will be open to a broader public through a livestream (on this website).

Panel Speaker

Andrea Cominola | Junior Professor for Smart Water Networks at the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF) and Technische Universität Berlin. His research focuses on the modeling and management of water and energy demand, the detection of leakages and cyber-physical anomalies, behavior modeling, data mining and machine learning.

Luiza Bengtsson | Data, Actors, Infrastructures team member at HIIG and works on implementing Data & Society Interface research projects with the vision to enable open data access for public good, without data sharing in the classical sense and without collateral damage to individuals or institutions.

Ophélie Ivombo | Program officer for Digitisation of the Consumer Advice Centre Berlin and Bündnis Digitale Stadt Berlin. 

Thomas Krause | Project Manager Digitisation Strategy, Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises.

Mit: Dr. Linda Monsees (Autorin, Postdoktorandin am Exzellenzcluster "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen"), Prof. Peter Burgess (Professor and Chair of Geopolitics of Risk at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris) und Prof. Dr. Nicole Deitelhoff (Direktorin des Leibniz-Instituts Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung, Principal Investigator des Exzellenzclusters "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen", Professorin für Internationale Beziehungen und Theorien globaler Ordnungen der Goethe-Universität)

By Frauke Steglich (Kiel Institute, Kiel Centre for Globalization)

William J. Burns is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for its Renewal (Random House, 2019). He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a thirty-three-year diplomatic career. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become deputy secretary of state. Prior to his tenure as deputy secretary, Ambassador Burns served from 2008 to 2011 as undersecretary for political affairs. He was ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs from 2001 to 2005, and ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001. Ambassador Burns earned a bachelor’s degree in history from La Salle University and master’s and doctoral degrees in international relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. He and his wife, Lisa, have two daughters.

Especially in connection with the last elections to the European Parliament, various forms of disinformation, propagated over social networks, played an important role. This is one of the major focusses of the publication. Online “trolls” work specifically on the weakening of individual persons or opinions, and are met on the other side by the defenders of democratic discourse. Additionally, the question arises as to what role private companies play in the struggle to uphold basic democratic values. And how can or should policymakers intervene to regulate this sector? When dealing with the conflicted field of information intermediaries, it is phenomena such as fake news, hate speech and filter bubbles that come to the fore.

In this paper, we also discuss the meaning and definition of the term information intermediary. Increasingly, algorithms automatically influence people’s everyday media realities. In particular, the data that social media and other services collect from their users plays a key role in shaping the information people receive in personalized news feeds or search engine results. 

In addition to these and related topics, this issue of the Research Monitor also deals with current research projects, for example on populism in social networks or on the difficulty of proving or disproving the existence of filter bubbles in social networks.

An upcoming event is also announced that will deal with the question of how news reaches users today and whether users come into contact with news items via social networks that otherwise would not have reached them.

You can download the entire issue of the Research Monitor here.

CV

John P. McCormick is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Carl Schmitt’s Critique of Liberalism: Against Politics as Technology (Cambridge University Press, 1997); Weber, Habermas and Transformations of the European State: On Constitutional, Social and Supranational Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2007); Machiavellian Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2011); and Reading Machiavelli (Princeton 2018). Professor McCormick has received the following fellowships: Fulbright Scholarship, the Center for European Law & Politics, the University of Bremen in Germany (1994 – 95); Jean Monnet Fellowship, the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (1995 – 96); Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship, Harvard University (2008 – 09); Rockefeller Foundation Resident Fellowship, Bellagio, Italy (2013); and National Endowment for the Humanities Grant (2017 – 18).

Leopoldina Lecture by Nobel Laureate Prof. Dr. Ada Yonath The event is open to all interested parties.

The summit brought together high-level policy makers responsible for policies related to the digital economy and key stakeholders, to exchange views and share practices and experiences in key areas of policy, look toward the future, and provide ideas for future OECD work. The agenda reflected the seven pillars of the OECD’s Going Digital integrated policy framework: enhancing access, increasing effective use, unleashing innovation, ensuring jobs, promoting social prosperity, strengthening trust and fostering market openness.

In the Global Governance Spotlight 2|2019, Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann examines the successes and deficits of previous norm-building processes and regulatory efforts in the field of social media, particularly at regional and global level. On this basis, five guidelines are named which could help to overcome the shortcomings of previous attempts of regulation.

Kettemann, Matthias C. (2019): Internationale Regeln für Soziale Medien: Menschenrechte wahren und Desinformation bekämpfen [International Rules for Social Media: Safeguarding Human Rights and Fighting Disinformation]. Global Governance Spotlight 2|2019.

Germany consumes some 1.3 billion tonnes of fossil fuels, minerals, ores and biomass per year. UBA's Use of Natural Resources Report claims that the majority of raw material consumption is non-metallic minerals (45%), fossil fuels (29%) and biomass (21%). Although raw material consumption in Germany is becoming more and more efficient thanks to industry efforts and total raw material productivity has increased by 26% since 2000, Germany has an excessively high level of raw material consumption compared to other countries: 10% higher than the average in Europe, and even 100% higher than the global average. More than half of the raw materials consumed for the production of goods is sourced from abroad.

Why participate? - to learn about Space opportunities in H2020 and beyond - to get to know the new Horizon 2020 Space Work Programme - to get an idea of the next EU Framework Programme (Horizon Europe) - to meet potential partners for the open space Call

Target groups - Companies - Universities - Research Institutes - other organisations

Topics - Earth Observation - Space technologies - EGNSS - Secure and safe space environment - Space business Join this opportunity to learn about the H2020 Space Call 2019, meet inspired and motivated people and develop ideas for future projects!

That Twitter cannot serve as an image of our society is due to the fact that the actual figures of users in Germany are very small, explains Hölig in the interview. Only one per cent of the population in Germany uses Twitter on a daily basis. And about 90 per cent of them only use it passively. The number of those who actively participate in Twitter discourse and contribute to the mood on Twitter is very small.

Moreover, according to Höllig's study, active Twitter users have special personality traits. They are more opinionated, extroverted and generally less anxious than the rest of the online community. This does not reflect a representative picture of society as a whole.

The event will be combined with the local award ceremony of the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Award 2018, with which Fraunhofer IGD is being recognized this year for its CultLab3D project. The CultLab3D team has already been celebrating since June 22, when their project was honored in the official ceremony during the European Cultural Heritage Summit in Berlin: the European Commission and Europa Nostra honored 29 winners from 17 countries for their outstanding achievements in preservation, research, volunteering, education, training, and raising awareness. CultLab3D was among the winners of the prize in the Research category. Critical to this success is the forward-looking technology, which automatically produces 3D scans in the highest resolution – with unprecedented speed.

“Currently we have a twofold problem,” explains lead author Max Franks from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK): “There is a huge underprovision of basic necessary public goods such as public health systems, access to schools and clean water. On the other hand greenhouse gas emissions are still rising and there is an overuse of the atmosphere, a global common good, as a disposal space for these emissions”. So far, the two problems have mostly been dealt with separately. “But if you look at both climate and sustainable development policies at the same time, it turns out that carbon pricing could indeed address both problems simultaneously and effectively,” Franks says.

A better understanding of the cognitive dimensions of human agents in their individual and collective behavior could be the key to implementing the different goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda in a coordinated manner. The symposium addresses the question of how to strengthen “brain power” for sustainable development and aims at identifying the cognitive preconditions for a successful sustainability transition.

With this symposium, Leopoldina continues the dialogue between science and politics on sustainability and builds on the symposium “The Turn to Sustainability?”, which was held in Berlin in October 2016.

Since the Industrial Revolution, however, energy-driven consumption of fossil fuels has led to a rapid increase in CO2 emissions, disrupting the global carbon cycle and leading to a planetary warming impact. Global warming and a changing climate have a range of potential ecological, physical and health impacts, including extreme weather events (such as floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves); sea-level rise; altered crop growth; and disrupted water systems. The most extensive source of analysis on the potential impacts of climatic change can be found in the 5th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report; this presents full coverage of all impacts in its chapter on Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. In light of this evidence, UN member parties have set a target of limiting average warming to 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. This entry provides a historical to present day perspective of how CO2 emissions have evolved, how emissions are distributed, and the key factors that both drive these trends and hold the key to mitigating climate change.

Tameness is the most characteristic feature of all domestic animals and I will also show how we used the rabbit to study the genetic changes that were needed to transform an alert wild rabbit with a very strong flight response into a docile domestic rabbit with a blunted flight response. Charles Darwin started by observing biodiversity in nature during his voyage around the globe on Beagle, formulated his theory of evolution by natural selection and used domestic animals to collect evidence supporting his controversial theory. My scientific journey has gone in the opposite direction. For many years I have used domestic animals as models to understand the genetic basis underlying evolutionary change. But in recent years, thanks to the development of cost-effective methods for whole genome DNA sequencing, I have expanded my research into wild animals. I will therefore end by explaining what we have learned by sequencing the entire genome of all species of Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos.

by Prof. Leif Andersson, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Sweden

While the services provided in the platform economy are very diverse, the platforms share several characteristics. They are multinational companies which offer their services in a number of countries. They all claim that they are not employers and present themselves as neutral mediators between customers und service providers. Workers in the platform economy have no employment relationships and therefore no social security and no entitlements like annual leave, sickness pay etc. Despite refusing responsibility for the workers, the platforms fulfill typical roles of employers like organizing and controlling the labor process.

We invite to discussing these questions together with:

- Steven Hill, journalist, lecturer and political professional based in the United States, is currently Journalist in Residence at the WZB. He is author of several books, with his latest being Die Startup Illusion: Wie die Internet-Ökonomie unseren Sozialstaat ruiniert (published in German) and Raw Deal: How the “Uber Economy” and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers, which was selected by The Globalist as one of the Top Ten Books of 2015.

- Sabine Pfeiffer: professor of sociology at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Her research deals with the relationship between technology and labor, in particular with the impact of the internet and digital technologies on workers, work organization, and skills.

- M. Six Silberman, project secretary, IG Metall. He is currently responsible for the trade union‘s projects aiming at organizing platform workers. He was one of the creators of Turkopticon, an online system supporting workers of the „Amazon Mechanical Turk“ platform.

With socio-economic inequality as a major public concern, researchers have long been interested in measuring how persistent inequalities are between generations. Do the descendants from successful families tend to remain successful? Or is there ‘intergenerational mobility’, such that an individual’s origin is not a prime determinant of his or her socio-economic status?

A new study by Sebastian Braun from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Jan Stuhler from the University Madrid which is published in the March 2018 issue of the Economic Journal examines the persistence of socio-economic status over four genera­tions in twentieth century Germany (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecoj.12453/full).The researchers conclude that on average, about 60 percent of socio-economic prospects were transmitted from one generation to the next, irrespective of whether socio-economic success is measured in terms of educational or occupational advantages.

The Paris climate agreement obliges the international community to limit global warming to two degrees. However, man-made greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase instead of decreasing. Is climate engineering a solution to slow global warming? In the current issue of the journal Nature, Professor Andreas Oschlies from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel warns of an underestimated long-term risk of solar radiation management, one of the proposed climate engineering measures.

When the Pinatubo volcano erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it blew huge amounts of dust and gases into the atmosphere. Therefore, solar radiation was partly reflected instead of warming the earth's surface. Global average temperatures in the lower atmosphere temporarily dropped by half a degree. So why not copy the volcano by deploying large quantities of aerosols into the atmosphere in order to slow down the current global warming?

This idea is already being discussed internationally and first tests are under way. However, in today's issue of the journal Nature, the biogeochemist Prof. Dr. Andreas Oschlies from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel warns of an often disregarded side effect of so-called Solar Radiation Management (SRM). "Once you start SRM on a large scale, you cannot stop it without significant risks. This has been shown by many computer simulations of the Earth system," he emphasizes.

Reference:

Oschlies, A. (2018): Solar engineering must take temperature debt into account. Nature 554, 423 (2018), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02203-x