[Introduction] A critical analysis of the topic "societal impacts" is relevant and necessary for several reasons. These are: 1) The topic of societal impacts is currently at the top of the agenda in both (applied) science and in research and innovation (R&I) policy. 2) There is no uniform...

[Introduction] Since about 15 years, science, technology and innovation (STI) policies are increasingly geared towards addressing objectives reaching beyond an immediate economic focus on growth and competitiveness. This "normative turn" (Daimer et al. 2012) is expressed in the strategic...

Whereas broadband coverage with speeds of up to 30 Mbit/s is quite high, Europe is generally lagging behind in the roll-out of high-performance, future-proof fibre networks (Fibre-To-The-Home/ Fibre-To-The-Building). Yet, some European countries have been quite successful in their efforts to...

Novel application fields at the interstices between nanoscience, biotechnology, cognitive science and Computer Sciences collected under the new umbrella term “Converging Technologies” raised public and political awareness. Efforts have been made to further strengthen interdisciplinary...