Shaping Societal Futures as a Career Path? Between academia and social impact

As knowledge producers, scientists play a central role in shaping societal futures. As current times are characterised by a plethora of societal challenges and crises, ranging from climate change to demographic changes, accompanied by profound technological change, such as the rapid spread of AI, the roles of researchers are also in flux. Especially relevant in this regard is also the question of (social) responsibility and objectivity of science. Although scientists – and consequently their scientific work – are shaped by personal views as well as the (political and social) environment in which they work, science is expected to be objective in its production of knowledge. Within the context of this year’s Eu-SPRI Early Career Event, participants will discuss these questions of responsibilities and tasks of (early career) researchers.

The call for contributions is now open. Please find it here: https://euspri2025.de/index.php/early-career-event/

The early career event will take place in-person on the day before the start of the actual Eu-SPRI conference (June 10^th). It will be hosted by the Social Research Centre of TU Dortmund University (https://sfs.sowi.tu-dortmund.de/). The participant fee for the event is 50€ (including lunch, coffee/tea, dinner and drinks).