News

20 Years ZTG

© Alexander Heidemüller

In 2016, the ZTG celebrated its 20th anniversary. For this occasion, a scientific colloquium on "Technology and society in the center: 20 years of living inter- and transdisciplinarity" took place on 5 July 2016.

© S. Maple

A group of around 100 people were welcomed by the vice-president of the TU, Prof. Dr. Angela Ittel. The following podium discussion was opened by Wolfgang Neef, the former Vice President of the TU. He gave a review of the university policy situation during the concept and start-up phase of the ZTG. Afterwards former and current employees described the development of the ZTG from their perspective.

© S. Maple

Then project partners from science and industry as well as division heads of the ZTG provided insights into their experiences in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary project work.

The concluding session "Tackling Societal Challenges - Science in search of a new quality" focused on the past and future development of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research at the university and wider research landscape, their contribution to coping with social issues Challenges.

© S. Maple

Prof. Dr. Armin Grunwald, Head of the Institute for Technology Assessment and System Analysis ITAS, presented the changes in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research from the beginnings of technology assessment up to today.
Prof. Dr. Daniel Lang, holder of the Department of Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research at Leuphana University Lüneburg, spoke about the conceptual and practical implementation of transdisciplinarity in the context of sustainability and the associated design requirements and possibilities.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Martina Schäfer rounded off the panel with a lecture on quality requirements for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and gave a first glimpse into the work of the research project "TransImpact".