The 3TU alliance will create a sixth center of excellence. The new center will deal with ethical issues concerning technology developed in the five technological centers, which recently received a grant of fifty million euros from the Dutch government.
Delft, Eindhoven and Twente will fund the new center themselves. Each of them will contribute half a million euros over a period of five years. Chairman of the Executive Board Flierman expects that the money will be used in large part to pay for PhD students. The Center for Ethics and Technology will focus on ethical dilemmas surrounding the themes of the technological centers of excellence, such as bio- and nanotechnology, ICT and renewable energy. Philip Brey, associate professor in philosophy of technology at the Faculty of Behavioral Sciences, represents the UT in the execution of the plans. `We want to help technological researchers and designers to improve the way they handle ethical issues,' he explains. `Furthermore, we will examine how technology can be regulated and used in an ethical manner.' The research will be closely connected to the research themes of the technological centers of excellence. There will also be space for fundamental ethical research, according to Brey.
The plan is a joint effort of the philosophy departments from each of the three technological universities. Brey continues, `We have collaborated previously with Delft and Eindhoven on research and education. We have common interests, especially in the field of ethics. Working together in a 3TU alliance, we can get better results than individually, because we complement each other well.' Because the decision to create five centers of excellence had already been made, it was no longer possible to embed the Center for Ethics and Technology in the plans presented to the government.
Different from the technological centers of excellence, which will get thirty new top professors, the center for ethics will not hire any new professors. `We don't need to,' Brey insists. `The research on philosophy of technology at the three TUs is already very strong. All three of us were recently graded `excellent' by an independent international VSNU visitation committee.' The Center for Ethics and Techology will mostly expand on the existing 3TU research on ethics. Brey: `We are working to make that more concrete. We will hire researchers for the new research themes and are considering new initiatives for joint master's education. The collaboration will make us stronger internationally. We expect that joining forces will make us one of the best centers in the field globally, and certainly the best in Europe.'
Trans. Jeroen Latour
