Phasing out fossil fuels, banning pesticides, exiting nuclear power, retiring the combustion engine — modern societies are under growing pressure to actively end established unsustainable technologies. Yet while innovation is intensively studied, remarkably little is known about how successful endings actually come about. Technologies of Discontinuation: Towards Transformative Policies (Edward Elgar, 2026) closes this gap. … Continue reading How do you end a technology? A blueprint for governing the end of the old
Blogs
The State Strikes Back: Rethinking Innovation Policy for Turbulent Times
Our research handbook “The New Role of the State for Transformative Innovation” (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2026) examines the evolving role of the State in fostering transformative innovation amid 21st-century challenges including climate change and geopolitical shifts. In 27 chapters more than 50 world leading scholars present state-of-the-art expertise about options and limitations of State governance … Continue reading The State Strikes Back: Rethinking Innovation Policy for Turbulent Times
Public and private bureaucracies as transformation agent?
Large public and private organisations can be crucial actors if not gate keepers for societal and socio-technological change towards Sustainable Development Goals and climate neutrality. Yet, as bureaucratic organisations they are prone to conservatism and inertia. Typical examples are public energy utilities, universities, or funding organisations. In a recent paper with Jakob Edler and Florian … Continue reading Public and private bureaucracies as transformation agent?
“Populist policies threaten Dutch universities’ unique appeal”
Barend van der Meulen (University of Twente) and I have published a comment in ResearchEurope (March 7, 2024). For decades, particularly since the turn of the millennium, Dutch universities have attracted a growing number of students and scholars from other European countries and worldwide. English-language working environments and publishing in international journals have made research … Continue reading “Populist policies threaten Dutch universities’ unique appeal”
Technology, Society & Governance in the 21st century
Farewell Symposium Stefan Kuhlmann University of Twente, 24 March 2022 Key note speakers of the Symposium were Pierre-Benoit Joly, INRAE/LISIS (Paris/Toulouse); Annalisa Pelizza, University of Bologna; Jakob Edler, Fraunhofer Inst. Systems & Innovation Research (ISI, Karlsruhe); Gonzalo Ordoñez Matamoros, Univ. Externado de Colombia (Bogota); Stefan Kuhlmann (University of Twente, STePS). Speakers and discussions addressed pressing … Continue reading Technology, Society & Governance in the 21st century
The New Protocol for Science Diplomacy
Science Diplomacy has the potential to play a considerable role in future international collaborations intent on tackling societal challenges. This ambition cannot be achieved by positioning science diplomacy as a soft power to be utilized by single countries to further their interests. Tackling societal challenges is a cosmopolitan ambition and common, shared interest that requires … Continue reading The New Protocol for Science Diplomacy
Towards effective science diplomacy practice
Ewert Aukes, Gonzalo Ordóñez-Matamoros, Stefan Kuhlmann, and Sanaz Honarmand-Ebrahimi have published a policy brief focusing on key premises for the development of effective governance mechanisms for science diplomacy. This Policy Brief is a product of the European H2020 funded project S4D4C. Grand societal challenges require collective action within and across national borders. Effective action is … Continue reading Towards effective science diplomacy practice
Tentative governance of emerging science and technology
By Stefan Kuhlmann, Peter Stegmaier and Kornelia Konrad 2019 we published an Introduction (open access) and Special Section in the journal Research Policy. While actors in public policy, industry, or civil society organisations attempting to ‘govern’ Emerging Science and Technology (EST) may try to promote desired effects, often the actor constellations and institutional arrangements, deliberations … Continue reading Tentative governance of emerging science and technology
Review of Danish Research and Innovation System
Ten steps, and a leap forward: taking Danish innovation to the next level - says a peer review panel of Christian Ketels, Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, Jackie Hunter, Stefan Kuhlmann, Tony Raven, Pieter Heringa, Uri Gabai, Göran Marklund and Christopher Palmberg. Abstract: "Denmark is among Europe’s innovation leaders, with a strong science base, high overall investments … Continue reading Review of Danish Research and Innovation System
Handbook on Science and Public Policy
Dagmar Simon, Stefan Kuhlmann, Julia Stamm and Weert Canzler have edited a Handbook on Science and Public Policy The handbook assembles state-of-the-art insights into the co-evolutionary and precarious relations between science and public policy. Beyond this, it also offers a fresh outlook on emerging challenges for science (including technology and innovation) in changing societies, and … Continue reading Handbook on Science and Public Policy
