Research Area D

Societal challenges and Sustainability

Aspects of sustainability, psychological acceptance and ethical approval will be an important driver of the work done in livMatS. Research and development are carried out in constant, concurrent reflection of the sustainability of the applied approaches. At the same time, questions of societal acceptance and the philosophical clarification of traditional notions of what is considered “natural”, “artificial”, “living” or “inanimate” have an important impact on an appropriate public perception. This is because living materials systems are linked to certain attitudes and preconceptions in both, science and society.

The development of living materials systems will be part of a responsible scientific and technical progress in the Anthropocene, the current era in the history of the Earth dominated by human impact on life and inanimate nature. Instead of first completing the technological development and then analyzing the implications for society, livMatS will closely interweave technology development with sustainability assessments, behavioral analyses regarding acceptance, and the philosophical-ethical discourse on the interplay between human control and autonomy of systems. For this purpose, livMatS connects experts from the natural and engineering sciences with those from sustainability research, psychology, philosophy, and ethics. The aim is to meet people's demands for future-oriented environmental and energy technologies.

Coordinators Research Area D
Prof. Dr. Lore Hühn, Prof. Dr. Andrea Kiesel

Projects within Research Area D

• System as an interdisciplinary concept and the research on living materials systems
• livMatS as part of and reaction to the Anthropocene: Sustainability assessement and investigation of psychological and philosophical implications of living materials systems
• Collection and evaluation of basal attributes of living materials systems
• Predicting attitudes and behavior concerning living materials: Develop software and analyses methods to apply cognitive affective maps
• Development of a Tiered Approach for Prospective Assessment of Benefits and Challenges and first applications
• Demonstrator for soft autonomous machines ‐ soft robotic low energy gripper systems based on livMatS Materials with sensing capabilities
  This project is a cooperation between research areas B, D and Demonstrators.

Compact Projects 2021 - finished

• The autonomy of nature. Rethinking the status of nature in livMats and the Anthropocene
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Lore Hühn

Compact Projects 2020 - finished

• The concept of life in livMatS and the Anthropocene
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Lore Hühn

Booster Projects 2021 - finished

• What Drives Ethical Decisions? Ethical Evaluation of Bioinspired Technologies in real time
  Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Lore Hühn
  Responsible Investigator: Prof. Dr. Oliver Müller