Early Career Event, Dortmund, 10th June

Early Career Event

Shaping Societal Futures as a Career Path? Between academia and social impact

As knowledge producers, scientists play a central role in shaping societal futures. As current times are characterised by a plethora of societal challenges and crises, ranging from climate change to demographic changes, accompanied by profound technological change, such as the rapid spread of AI, the roles of researchers are also in flux. Especially relevant in this regard is also the question of (social) responsibility and objectivity of science. Although scientists – and consequently their scientific work – are shaped by personal views as well as the (political and social) environment in which they work, science is expected to be objective in its production of knowledge. Within the context of this year’s Eu-SPRI Early Career Event, we will discuss these questions of responsibilities and tasks of (early career) researchers.

A relevant question for this discussion is: how do you achieve impact with your research? And does striving for societal impact hinder the development of an academic career? These questions touch upon recent debates on quality, and especially on the quality measurement, in academia. To advance an academic career, the focus remains very much on producing high-impact articles, where high-impact is measured by impact factors that merely measure how many other researchers cite your work, but that is near meaningless in the wider societal debates (not in the least because a great number of journal articles is hidden behind a huge paywall). Societal impact, on the other hand, can best be achieved through activities that have not traditionally been highly valued within the academic system but which are increasingly encouraged through transdisciplinary research and a growing importance of universities’ Third Mission.

Transdisciplinary research is seen as particularly suitable to produce knowledge with high societal value and practical, real-world, innovations. However, transdisciplinary research poses challenges for researchers. Firstly, researchers need to perform many different roles and therefore need new skills and competences. Secondly, transdisciplinary research is time consuming, meaning that scientists have to spend large parts of their time getting to know and earn the trust from research participants and project management tasks, rather than with producing scientific publications. As an early career researcher, oftentimes in precarious positions with short-term contracts, it can be either risky or unattractive to engage in this kind of research and teaching. Within the Early Career Event, we will discuss these topics with experienced researchers.

Concept and working methods

The Early Career Event will be kick-off with a welcome address by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Howaldt. Early career researchers will subsequently shortly present their work at the event, focusing on challenges and opportunities for achieving impact. They will be supported by four selected senior researchers (Alejandra Boni, Toni Caro, Christoph Kaletka and Klaus Schuch), with practical experience with transdisciplinary research and who will share their insights and lessons learned. In plenary sessions and group discussions, challenges and opportunities for impactful transdisciplinary research will be addressed and discussed in a constructive environment based on mutual learning.

Participants

Early career researchers will briefly present their work at the event, with a focus on challenges and opportunities for achieving impact. In order to allow for fruitful discussion, the number of participants will be limited to 25 early career researchers. 

Practicalities

The early career event will take place in-person on the day before the start of the actual Eu-SPRI conference (June 10th). It will be hosted by the Social Research Centre of TU Dortmund University (https://sfs.sowi.tu-dortmund.de/). The participant fee for the event is 50€ (including lunch, coffee/tea, dinner and drinks).

Early Career Event10 June 2025, 09:00 – 17:00
Deadline for applications now closed30th March 2025
Notification of acceptance04 April 2025

The motivation statement should be submitted via email to euspri2025.sfs@tu-dortmund.de

EU-SPRI 2025 CONFERENCE, TU Dortmund University in Dortmund, Germany, 11-13 June 2025

Dortmund City Center

The 2025 Eu-SPRI Annual Conference will be hosted by the Social Research Center at TU Dortmund University in Dortmund, Germany, in collaboration with other groups within the university. The main conference will take place on 11 to 13 June 2025, with a preceding Early Career Event on 10 June.

Under the conference theme ‘Shaping Societal Futures with STI Policies’ (more information about the theme can be found here: https://euspri2025.de/)

Eu-SPRI Conference 11-13 June 2025, Dortmund: Call for Tracks and Sessions

Dortmund City Center

Eu-SPRI Conference 2025: Call for Tracks and Sessions

Submission Deadline: 15 November 2024

2025 Eu-SPRI Annual Conference will be hosted by the Social Research Center at TU Dortmund University in Dortmund, Germany, in collaboration with other groups within the university. The main conference will take place on 11 to 13 June, 2025, with a preceding Early Career Event on 10 June.

The conference theme is Shaping Societal Futures with STI Policies, and the organising committee is now welcoming academic researchers from a broad range of disciplines, as well as STI policymakers, to submit proposals for tracks and special (stand-alone) sessions.

 

Shaping Societal Futures with STI Policies

In recent years, the question of the contribution of STI policies to overcoming the major societal challenges and supporting the necessary transformation processes has increasingly become the focus of attention. Against the backdrop of deepening social, ecological and economic crises, the question of the extent to which STI policy is able to respond to rapidly changing and often unpredictable developments and to strengthen the resilience and the innovative capacity of our societies is becoming more and more important.

What contribution can STI policy make in order to ensure prosperity in an effective and sustainable way and to create a just and resilient society in which nature and the environment, the economy and people’s needs are in harmony? In view of far-reaching social, ecological, technological, and geopolitical changes, social, digital, and green transitions must be systematically interlinked.

This also raises the question of how the innovation potential of society can be strengthened to increase the impact of STI policies and, more generally, what kind of innovation concept is needed to facilitate the achievement of the diverse and sometimes contradictory goals under the conditions of increasingly crisis-ridden processes.

 

Subject Matters for Tracks and Special Sessions

Against this background, the conference will address a number of interrelated questions:

  •  What contributions can policies for science, technology, and innovation make to increase the resilience of societies? How can social, ecological, and economic goals be combined?
  • Which alternative (post-Schumpeterian) models of innovation and innovation policy have emerged? How can different types of innovation (social and technological innovations) be systematically linked (comprehensive innovation policy, just transition, etc.)?
  • How can we strengthen the link between STI policies and other policies to better tackle major societal challenges (Industry 4.0, triple transition, National Strategy for Social Innovation and Social Enterprises …)?
  • Which empirical contributions critically examine the potential and limitations of STI policies? Which are its dark sides, its undesired and unexpected impacts?
  • Given that the entire growth-based paradigm has come under scrutiny in debates around sufficiency, maintaining, de-growth, post-growth or resilience, how can the concept of innovation be critically reflected by focusing on its ambivalence and destructive side?
  • What lessons can be learned from the experiences of the Global South? Which types of innovation research, policy and practice can provide impulses for learning processes in the Global North?
  • How can the impact of STI policy be assessed in a comprehensive sense?

In addition to proposals on this range of topics, we also welcome other suggestions for tracks addressing interdisciplinary dimensions related to policy and governance in the field of knowledge creation and innovation.

 

Submission Details for Tracks and Special Sessions

  • Proposals for tracks may include different types of sessions such as full or early-stage research paper sessions, debates, policy dialogue sessions and/or a mixture of these. Proposals for stand-alone special sessions are also welcome.
  • Proposals should contain 800 words maximum including a title, organisers’ details, and session/track description, including details about the interaction mode and a list of speakers/guests (if you propose a closed session/part to a track).
  • Tracks/sessions may be proposed by at least two organisers.
  • Those selected for the conference will be asked to provide guidance for participants applying through the conference ‘Call for Papers’, and then support the organising committee and the international scientific committee in reviewing the papers and organizing their track or special session.

 

Please submit your proposal on the conference website [euspri2025.de] by 15 November 2024 at the latest. Organisers will be notified of the acceptance of their proposals prior to the opening of the Call for Papers.

For further information, please visit the conference website [euspri2025.de].

If you need help with proposal submission, please contact euspri2025.sfs@tu-dortmund.de.

On behalf of the Organising Committee,
Jürgen Howaldt