Publikationen

Film evening with panel discussion On 23 January 2024, the Joint Committee held a film evening followed by a panel discussion at Cinema Paris in Berlin. Christopher Nolan’s film “Oppenheimer” was shown, which not only dramatically recounts the events surrounding the construction of the first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project, but also…

Conference, June 5, 2023, Berlin, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Research freedom enables researchers to find scientific questions themselves, to work on them on their own responsibility and to freely exchange ideas with other researchers within the legally guaranteed freedom of research. However, useful research results and methods can also be misused for harmful, for…

Hanover, May 24, 2023, Xplanatorium Schloss Herrenhausen, Herrenhäuserstr. 5, 30419 Hanover, 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The term brain-computer interface refers to the interface between the human brain and a computer. By means of non-invasive electro-encephalogram (EEG) or the implantation of electrodes in the brain, it is now possible to read out intentions of various…

During the introduction to the one-day event for the KEFs, which was held in cooperation with the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) on 25 April 2022 at its premises in Hamburg, Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Directorate, explained that DESY had committed itself to peaceful purposes in its guidelines for research. In recent years, research…

On 17 February 2022, the online event “Science for questionable purposes? Dual use and its consequences” was held as part of the Leopoldina discussion series “On Freedom and Responsibility in the Sciences”. It was organised by the Leopoldina Committee on Science and Ethics and the Leopoldina Centre for Science Studies in cooperation with the Joint…

At an online workshop on 31 May 2021, which was held together with the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh), the chairs of the Joint Committee Britta Siegmund and Thomas Lengauer first outlined its tasks and objectives. GDCh Executive Director Wolfram Koch recalled the chequered history of chemical research and its potential for abuse,…

The objective of the second KEF Forum of the Joint Committee on 2 September 2019 held on the island of Riems was to facilitate communication and exchange of experience among the KEFs. The idea was to examine specific security-relevant research projects that the KEFs had already conclusively consulted on and discuss related topics such as…

The Leopoldina’s international conference format “Crossing Boundaries in Science” aims to identify research areas at an early stage that are particularly dependent on interdisciplinary collaboration. The second conference in the series was organised by the Joint Committee with the financial support of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation. It was entitled “The mystery…

On 1 April 2019, the Joint Committee held a discussion evening in Berlin entitled “Security instead of freedom – research between new findings and increased risks” as part of the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany’s campaign “Freedom is our system” marking the 70th anniversary of the German constitution and the scientific freedom it guarantees.…

The first KEF Forum took place on 7 June 2018 in the representation of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt in Berlin. It was targeted, above all, to the contact persons responsible for the handling of security-relevant research, and members of the already established KEFs. The workshop centred on sharing experiences on the obstacles of establishing…

On 27 October 2017, the Joint Committee organised the workshop “Freedom and Responsibility in IT Sciences” in Darmstadt. The workshop was directed primarily at the IT research community. Additional participants included other members of staff of German universities and non-university research institutions as well as representatives from the political sphere, the press and industry. The…

On 14 April 2016, the Joint Committee held an informational event on implementing the recommendations of the DFG and Leopoldina on the handling of security-relevant research. The event was directed primarily at the contact persons named by the German research institutions as responsible for the handling of security-relevant research. Additional participants included other members of…

The symposium of the German Ethics Council, the German Research Foundation and Leopoldina addressed the issues associated with the handling of security-relevant research. Important and useful research findings from almost every branch of science can potentially be misused to do harm. This dual-use dilemma repeatedly triggers debate on the benefits and risks of individual research…