Cultures of Research

Professor Gabriele Gramelsberger and Professor Stefan Böschen have secured a Käte Hamburger Kolleg grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Through this grant, the new International Center for Advanced Studies Cultures of Research (c:o/re) has been founded in May 2021. c:o/re is dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration between the humanities and social sciences with engineering and science. Every year, ten international fellows - postdocs and professors - from these disciplines join c:o/re for 12 months. The Inauguration event that took place on July 4th 2022 brought to Aachen world-leading scholars, such as Professor Karin Knorr-Cetina and science communication experts, such as journalist Dr. Jan-Martin Wiarda. With an address by the State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Mrs. Kornelia Haugg, the inauguration of c:o/re gave a sense of how strong the impact of this research center is expected to be.

Käte Hamburger Centers are a funding program by the BMBF for the humanities and social sciences. These centers provide spaces for outstanding scholars to pursue cutting-edge research in their respective areas and serve as centers of gravity for science internationally. Within this funding program, c:o/re stands out as an interdisciplinary center, based at a university with a technical focus. This highly recommends the inter- and trans-disciplinary academic dialogue at RWTH Aachen and, as such, this university’s capacity to address complex current issues. As it becomes a hub for interdisciplinary research on science and technology, c:o/re significantly enhances the university’s international network. Particularly because of the fellows and international guests it brings here, during the coming years, it will build a strong international alumni network. At a leading technical university, such as RWTH Aachen, the c:o/re fellows have a multitude of opportunities to make new professional connections with engineers and scientists from other departments and faculties. As through their input the humanistic and social research at RWTH is gaining in interdisciplinarity, c:o/re also contributes towards achieving an even more productive dialogue within the university. In brief, this research center does research on science, in an effort to understand science as a practice that has shaped current societies and ushers in the future of the planet. This broad scope has intricacies for many concerns, from ethical to social, cultural, environmental and epistemological. As examples of the big questions that come up in this framework, for instance, we ask: How can technology foster sustainable development? How do digital technologies increase the complexity of research and how can these both reveal new horizons and make science more opaque? How do crisis such as climate change, resource scarcity and population dislocation change the configurations of research practices and institutions? What responsibility dilemmas arise from newly emerging technological possibilities and contingencies?

Not only social but also scientific practices need to change

c:o/re currently consists of a team of two directors, one managing director, three postdoctoral and two doctoral researchers, besides administrative staff and student assistants that assure the smooth running of a rich schedule of research programs, lectures, workshops and other activities. Together with the international fellows, the c:o/re team undertakes research on the transformation of science but also of history, philosophy and sociology of science and technology. There is consensus in academia that, with the new challenges that humans face globally, not only social but also scientific practices need to change. The notion of cultures of research, especially against the background of global challenges, such as the environmental and humanitarian crises, is the main focus of c:o/re. Hence, the central concern is the actual production of science, as fostered through increasing complexity, involving several factors, such as the study of complex systems, the participative integration of institutional stakeholders and citizens and the affordances of social and cultural dynamics. As such, taking on also a classic scope of the humanities and social sciences, c:o/re helps scientists from many disciplines to imagine anew how solutions to current problems and sustainable development may look like, in ways that so far have been obscured by old habits and protocols. History of science is central for the work of c:o/re because to anticipate and project solutions for possible futures, of course, a keen understanding of the historical development of scientific ideas is necessary. To facilitate such interdisciplinary and innovative dialogue c:o/re organizes many events. Besides several conferences and talks, c:o/re has so far organized a lecture series on “The digitalization and research” and one on “Philosophy of AI: Optimist and pessimist views”.

c:o/re as a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue

Through the many programs it implements, c:o/re is a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue, bringing together scholars from various fields: the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences and technology. Its goal is to become a hub for global, cutting-edge academic exchange, facilitating insights into the ongoing transformations within science and society. By hosting this project, RWTH Aachen confirms not only that it is indeed a leading research university, within the Excellence Initiative, but, also, that it is uniquely fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, bridging the humanities and social sciences with engineering and natural sciences. This displays the university’s capacity to tackle difficult but impending issues, from digitalization and artificial intelligence to sustainable development, governance and the climate crisis.

c:o/re is a real presence in Aachen. It is located in an iconic building on Aachen’s prestigious Theaterstraße, in the heart of the city, where an elaborately refurbished eighteenth-century townhouse serves as its headquarters. Should you like to get in touch, the c:o/re team is always looking to expand its professional network. RWTH Alumni are kindly invited to get in touch if they have points of common interest with this research center. For contacts, please see the c:o/re website, where you can also register for their newsletter – an excellent way of staying up to date with their many research events and initiatives.

– Alin Olteanu, Phillip Roth