Answering the most crucial questions of the 21st century is an ambitious challenge. The 3TU.Ethics of Technology Centre, based in The Netherlands, is trying to do so.

What have the recent global financial crisis, the threat of climate change, the matter of poverty alleviation and the emergence of controversial and risky technologies in common?
All these realities have enormous impacts on contemporary society; each of them is influenced by specific technological developments, yet featured by universal ethical issues. Global justice, environmental governance and economic innovation are very much depending on how technological developments are designed and the relevant benefits distributed. This process can no longer be determined by mere cost-benefit appraisals or the push of uncontrolled economical growth. Solid and consistent ethical considerations shall be embedded in the processes of design and innovation.

This is the both the contribution and the ambition of 3TU.Ethics: adding ethical value to technology and, in so doing, answering to the most challenging and crucial questions of our time. This requires not only performing a sound theoretical reflection, but also linking ethical theory to the engineering practice. We feel that already during the early-phases of innovation and design attention should be paid to the social and ethical consequences of technology and its uses.
This is what we call Responsible innovation, which requires ethical parralel research and value sensitive design. At 3TU.Ethics we thus not only do excellent philosophical research, but also collaborate with technical centres of excellence. 
Read more about our activities and publications on this website, and contact us if you would like to have more information on our educational programmes and events.

To see the Quality Assessment of Research 2003-2009 Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management - the supplementary document on The 3TU. Centre for Ethics and Technology, please click here.