Abstract

Interdisciplinary research calls together different scientific disciplines in order to answer a research question which cannot be answered by an individual discipline alone. Technology Assessment (TA) is a problem-oriented approach (Bechmann and Frederichs 1996) dealing with the non-technical aspects of technology development, in order to gain knowledge about the (un-)intended consequences, the (un-)desired impacts, the main and side-effects and the chances and risks of (new) technologies. Moreover, by applying TA, scientists can develop potential solutions to solve societal or political problems related to, for example, the “grand challenges” such as “feeding 10 billion people,” demographic change, global health. These societal problems need to be reframed or transformed into research questions to be dealt with by interdisciplinary research. Which scientific disciplines are invited to participate in an interdisciplinary research project is defined with respect to these research questi