At the 116th GRIPS Forum on November 2, 2015, Mr. Jan Staman, the former director of the Rathenau Institute, SciREX Center Special Advisor, gave a lecture titled “Progress in dark days”.

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Abstract

Many parents fear that their children will grow up in periods of less progress than they enjoyed
themselves during the past. In Europe disruptive change, incidents, growing complexity and wicked
problems have altered ‘Die Zeitgeist’ radically. Trust in state and government has lowered but not
in Science. In this lecture sources for hope was explored and what against this background the challenge might be for Science and Technology and how universities might take the lead to Progress were discussed. Many topics coming from The Dutch Rathenau Instituut for Technology Assessment and Science Policy Studies was taken in account.

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Speakers’ Profile:

Jan Staman graduated in 1975 in veterinary medicine and law. He began a career in small animal medicine at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University. From 1982 till February 2002, Staman held several posts in the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. In February 2002, he was appointed Director of Technology Assessment and Science System Assessment at the Rathenau Institute (www.rathenau.nl). Major efforts have been made on the issue of evidence based politics which also resulted in close cooperation between leading institutes in Japan, Germany and the European Commission. The Institute is a consulting body to the Dutch Parliament and Government. In January 2015 Jan Staman retired and started a private consultancy with emphasis on disruptive technologies and conflicts between science, society and government. Currently Staman also chairs the EU Commission Expert Group, ”Strategic Foresight for R&I Policy in Horizon 2020”.