The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) was founded in 1969. How has the significance of DLR as a research infrastructure changed since then? DLR and its research facilities are closely involved in collaborative projects within the national and international scientific communities. DLR has more than 100 large-scale research facilities, some of which are globally unique.
How can crowdsourcing foster innovations in science? In general, the crowd’s diversity and the sheer number of (potential) contributors have been found to increase the likelihood of finding a novel solution (e.g., Jeppesen & Lakhani, 2010) and the chances of finding the best solution (e.g., Boudreau, Lacetera & Lakhani, 2011) to an innovation-relevant problem.
As the initiator of the movement “Scientists for future,” could you give us a “peek behind the scenes”: How did you come up with the idea and how did the concept evolve? Like many others, I was concerned by the slow progress of the sustainability agenda. That is, not just climate change, but also, for example, biodiversity loss, loss of soils, food security, and questions of human rights and justice.
You are offering workshops where researchers can learn how to achieve more impact with their work outside of academia. Why is this important? I have been providing training on knowledge translation, otherwise known as impact pathways, and research impact for the last five years to build the capacity of researchers and research support staff.
Why should prevention of power abuse and supervision conflicts be considered as a matter of good scientific practice? The application of good scientific practice aims to ensure that science is, without exception pursued in accordance with the highest standards of the respective scientific field. Thereby a sustainable evolution of the science ecosystem should be achieved and its credibility and reputation in society maintained.
Can ethics in science be global and why is this topic relevant currently? One of the main recurrent debates in the Global Ethics research team (GEST) has been whether ethics can be at all “global”. My opinion is that not only it could but it should. Notwithstanding the significant differences that we easily witness in cultural, social norms and behaviour, we are faced with a strongly interconnected and interdependent world.
In September you are organizing the conference “Divergent values in sustainability assessments: love them, leave them, or change them?”. A core theme of the conference is “ethics in scientific policy advice”. Why do you think the topic of ethics in scientific policy advice is important now? Martin Kowarsch, expert on Scientific Assessments, Ethics and Public Policy Scientific expertise is important for informing politics about
Why do we need scientific advice for cities based on urban research? Why is it not only a local, but also a global matter? Scientific advice for cities cannot be seen as a local issue, particularly because sustainable development is a global matter itself and needs a common approach.
Global rankings have decisively shifted the nature of the conversation around higher education to emphasise universities’ performance in knowledge economies. How did that happen and why are rankings becoming increasingly important? The emergence of global rankings coincided with the acceleration of globalisation at the turn of the millennium. This is because higher education is a global game.
The scientific community in some African countries is seeking for closer ties to the Western European and North American communities.