News

What role does ideological trust in institutions such as the state play in the emergence of civil society "vigilance" and the dynamics of the (de)politicization of nuclear debates? This paper explores this question by comparing four countries with different trust profiles: Finland as a “high trust society”, France and Spain as “societies of mistrust”, and Germany as an intermediate case. The result shows that strong ideological trust in the state hindered the development of mistrustful counter-expertise in Finland but created a basis for its emergence in France and Germany.

Using two case studies as examples, the handout describes ways, methods and results of cooperative innovation processes (co-creation) with target groups for which specific forms of participation are necessary from a practical and content-related perspective. These are, on the one hand, low-income families and, on the other hand, blind people and people with limited vision. The report highlights the potential for innovation through inclusive co-creation, which opens up new market opportunities for companies through products and solutions designed to meet special needs of these people.

The development and dissemination of new digital hardware and applications has been taking place at enormous speed for decades. However, what about resource efficiency and sustainability of innovations in the field of information technology and computing centers? This question is at the heart of the ENRICH research project, which investigates the impact of digitization on energy and resource consumption in German State of Baden-Württemberg.

The LIV_IN project invites interested people from all sectors to the following webinar in May:

How can blind and visually impaired people co-create innovations?

Webinar on May, 25th 2021, 4pm CEST

Two case studies will be used to discuss how co-creation between experts and citizens works and why it is worth considering inclusive innovations with blind and visually impaired people. In addition, the “7 practical points” for facilitating a workshop with this specific target group will be presented.

How can companies and citizens work together to develop innovations? How can they capture and consider each other' s needs and requirements for new technologies? The Co-Creation Toolkit uses the experience gained in 19 industry-citizen workshops in the LIV_IN project and provides general recommendations for involving users in a commercial Research & Development-Project. It is addressed to all those who are interested in involving laypersons in order to jointly design products and services in a more customer-friendly way and in the sense of RRI.

On April 30, 2021, the kick-off of the BMWi-funded project SyKonaS - Systemic Conflict Analysis using Scenario Techniques took place. DIALOGIK is a project partner in SyKonaS, which is coordinated by ZIRIUS (University of Stuttgart). The project addresses the existing research gap of a systemic and prospective view of societal conflicts of the energy transition.

The LIV_IN project invites interested people from all sectors to the following webinar in April:

How can low-income families co-create innovations?

Webinar on 28 April 2021, 3pm CEST

Two case studies will show how co-creation between experts and citizens works and why it is worth considering inclusive innovations with low-income families.

Other exciting topics of the webinar:

Hydrogen is expected to play a key role in the further development and completion of the German energy transition. But what are citizens' attitudes towards this technology? In a meta-study conducted as part of the H2-Wyhlen project, DIALOGIK comparatively evaluated representative surveys on the perception of hydrogen in Germany. The results show a high degree of openness towards hydrogen, which citizens consider to be an environmentally and climate-friendly energy with a low risk potential (working paper available in German only).

The Design Report published in the journal GAIA reflects on the challenges of a large-scale project without a designated problem and project constitution phase for inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration. The team of authors, which includes Dr. Marion Dreyer and Dr.

The recently published journal article “Participatory Assessment of Multi Risks in Urban Regions – The Case of Critical Infrastructures in Metropolitan Lima” describes a participatory approach to dealing with multi-risks using the example of the Lima metropolitan region, Peru. Co-authors Christian D. León and Gisela Wachinger from DIALOGIK look in particular at the question of what the barriers are in stakeholder communication.

The results of the 2021 GAIA Masters Student Paper Award have now been announced. Every year, the international journal GAIA – Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society invites Masters students to participate in the GAIA Masters Student Paper Award. Masters students are encouraged to submit their results from research-based courses or Masters theses in the field of transdisciplinary environmental and sustainability science.

On 18 February 2021, DIALOGIK moderated the second meeting of the virtual dialogue process of the RIESGOS project with 50 participants from Peru. At the event stakeholders from the risk management area worked together on solutions to overcome barriers in risk communication.

A group of scientists from the EU-funded project HIDALGO collaboratively organised a workshop to discuss pressing issues like the spread of diseases (COVID-19), climate change, air pollution, forced migration, or false and misleading information on twitter and other channels. The speakers showed that HPC, HPDA and Artificial Intelligence could form a pathway to accurately model, simulate, and also to provide forecasts (e.g. for movement patterns of refugees and logistics of aid).

The "Regulatory Sanbox H2-Wyhlen" has started its work with today's kick-off. From now on, information about the regulatory sandbox can be found on the project homepage (German only): www.h2-wyhlen.de

Hydrogen (H2) produced with renewable energy is a key technology for the low-CO2 provision of electricity, heat and mobility. However, there are still many technical, economic and social challenges to be solved so that green hydrogen can become a supporting pillar of a renewable energy system. The H2-Wyhlen project, a regulatory sandbox of the energy transition, starting on 1 January 2021, aims to develop an economic overall concept for the use of green hydrogen. The involvement of regional stakeholders and citizens is also crucial.

In summer 2020 a new project started at DIALOGIK, and the topic "Citizens' Dialogue Nuclear Energy (1974 – 1983)“ shows the emphasis on historic work. The three partners - IZT Berlin, the Gorleben Archive e.V. and DIALOGIK – will analyse the process of civic participation at that time in order to gain knowledge for the current process of selecting a site for the final storage of high level nuclear waste.

Delphi procedures can be used to make consensus and divergent expert opinions transparent, to point out possible futures and to ensure the integration of current knowledge.

The mega-project “Emscherumbau” in the German Ruhr area has been showing its effects for a while now: nature is returning to the urban areas, recreational paths are opening up the watercourses, and the northern Ruhr area is once again coming into focus as a region worth living in. What does this mean for the development of the region in the long turn? And how can this dynamic be successfully used for a mobility turn in the coming years?

The metropolitan region of Lima in Peru is exposed to many natural hazards such as tsunamis, earthquakes and landslides. These usually do not occur isolated, but have complex interactions and corresponding consequences (domino or cascading effects) for buildings, infrastructure and population. In risk management, the consideration of multi-risks is therefore of particular importance.