Objective The KNOWLEDGE NBIC project is a study into the knowledge and anticipated social consequences emerging from the NBIC fields, using a social scientific perspective. We propose to look into the patterns of NBIC knowledge production as well as the actual and potential use of and social resistance to such knowledge. In terms of knowledge production, our attention will focus on charting the institutional settings in which the NBIC fields are pursued and promoted.Relevant questions include: Who are the key actors involved? How do they figure in the overall ecology of both academic knowledge and socially relevant technologies? What funding mechanisms are used to promote convergence or synergy among different technological fields? Given the different origins of these fields, when and why did they start to 'converge' and to what extent? With respect to the use of and resistance to this knowledge, we will be concerned in particular with the growing moral, political and economic pressure to regulate, to police or even forbid novel knowledge as well as technical devices emerging from NBIC technologies.Such pressures have already become apparent in Europe and elsewhere with regard to biotechnology as well as stem cell research and similar concerns are beginning to be voiced with reference to nanotechnology. The new convergence technologies can be expected to raise similar if not more accentuated concerns in that they promise an integration of biological reproductive processes, mental mechanisms of learning and information management at the nanoscale. Our proposed activities are exploratory at this stage as very little is as of yet known about the 'converging' component of 'converging technologies', especially from the social scientific perspective. For this reason, our project will combine exploratory studies with networking activities in order to build up a community interested in this emerging S&T field of study. Fields of science social sciencessociologygovernancenatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabasesengineering and technologynanotechnologymedical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologycells technologiesstem cellshumanities Programme(s) FP6-CITIZENS - Citizens and Governance in a knowledge-based society: Thematic Priority 7 under the Focusing and Integrating Community Research Programme 2002-2006. Topic(s) CITIZENS-2004-8.3.4 - New converging technologies and their wider implications for a European knowledge based Society CITIZENS - Citizens and governance in a knowledge-based society Call for proposal FP6-2004-CITIZENS-6 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme SSA - Specific Support Action Coordinator ZEPPELIN UNIVERSITY Address Am seemooser horn 20 Friedrichshafen Germany See on map Links Website Opens in new window EU contribution € 0,00 Participants (6) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all CENTRE INTERDISCIPLINAIRE DE RECHERCHE COMPARATIVE EN SCIENCES SOCIALES France EU contribution € 0,00 Address 41 rue amilcar cipriani Saint-ouen See on map Links Website Opens in new window FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM KARLSRUHE GMBH Germany EU contribution € 0,00 Address Weberstrasse 5 Karlsruhe See on map Links Website Opens in new window FUNDACJA EUROPEJSKIEJ WSPOLPRACY NAUKOWEJ (THE FOUNDATION FOR EUROPEAN SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION) Poland EU contribution € 0,00 Address Palac w jablonnej ul modlinska 105 Jablonna See on map INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS & FORECASTING, AT TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY Israel EU contribution € 0,00 Address Ramat aviv Tel aviv See on map Links Website Opens in new window INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTRE FOR COMPARATIVE RESEARCH IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES Austria EU contribution € 0,00 Address Schottenfeldgasse 69/1 Wien See on map Links Website Opens in new window THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK United Kingdom EU contribution € 0,00 Address University house, kirby corner road Coventry See on map Links Website Opens in new window
