#Risk

Safeguarding Venice, the Mose Project

On March 20th 2012 MIT hosted an event entitled ‘The Safeguarding of Venice and its Lagoon: The Mose System’ and Jonathan Hankins was present as representative of the Bassetti Foundation. The widely reported Mose system aims to bring an end to the flooding of Venice caused by a combination of high tides and storms and ... Safeguarding Venice, the Mose Project

Jonathan Hankins
Redazione FGB

Layers of Uncertainty

On Monday March 5th I attended the third Science Technology Policy Crossroads symposium at the Harvard University Science Centre. The symposium was entitled ‘Layers of Uncertainty: Conversations on the role of uncertainty in science and technology policy’, details are available from their website linked above. The key note speech was delivered by Rear Admiral Ali ... Layers of Uncertainty

Ethics, Human Enhancement and Genetics. Report and Video

WORKSHOP at ECAP7 Sept 4th, 2011, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan Report, video and photos, abstracts. A REPORT by Virginia Sanchini The workshop was organized by Prof. Roberto Mordacci, chair of Moral Philosophy at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, and by Michele Loi, post-doc researcher at the same University. The aim of the ... Ethics, Human Enhancement and Genetics. Report and Video

Virginia Sanchini

Innovating Food, Innovating the Law – 19/31

Event: Innovating Food, Innovating the Law. Title: Regulating Emerging Risks: The case of nano-food applications and animal cloning in food production. Date: 2011 10 14 Time: 24 min. Place: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy. Language: English. url Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/31450146 Report: Innovating Food, Innovating the Law – report e immagini (in Italian). Slides: in ... Innovating Food, Innovating the Law – 19/31

Alberto Alemanno

Different forms of expertise

On Monday 3rd of May a seminar was held in The Bassetti Foundation conference suite with Dr Wiebe E. Bijker, Professor of Technology and Society at The University of Maastricht in Holland. An interview conducted by Margherita Fronte has already been published in Italian (Il ruolo degli esperti nella democrazia) and we now make the ... Different forms of expertise

Innovation may produce unexpected side effects

The latest edition of the economics journal “Project M” features an interview with Foundation President Piero Bassetti. The interview addresses the issues that are closest to The President’s heart: how can we firstly define innovation and responsibility and secondly push innovators into thinking ethically about the consequences of their actions, given the possibly far-reaching and ... Innovation may produce unexpected side effects

Innovation, social risk and political responsibility

by Piero Bassetti (Lecture presented at the London School of Economics – 14 May 2003) Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great honour to address this distinguished audience at such a prestigious institution, one to which I feel especially close after my days here as a Stringer Fellow with Professor Yamey. The background to the ... Innovation, social risk and political responsibility

Piero Bassetti

Regulating nanotechnology through private actors?

by Brice Laurent While some public officials claim that the potential risks of nanotechnology will be managed as early as possible, numerous questions are raised about the relevance of existing regulation for the many different nano-products. The standards and codes that are being experimented are, at this time, mostly voluntary and emerge from a range ... Regulating nanotechnology through private actors?

Judith Estrin: Closing the Innovation Gap

Judith Estrin is the author of Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy, the Chief Executive Officer of JLabs LLC in Menlo Park, Calif., and serves on the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company and FedEx Corporation. Best known for her work as an entrepreneur, and for ... Judith Estrin: Closing the Innovation Gap

Without risk there is no progress

“Without risk there is no progress”, and this should be borne in mind when speaking about innovation and responsibility. If we accept the statement above made by the International Risk Governence Council then we must accept that innovation is not a risk free business. The International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) is an independent foundation based ... Without risk there is no progress

Science and Governance: the EU report on Science and Governance presented at FGB

The Giannino Bassetti Foundation deals with the problem of innovation and specifically with the responsibility that should guide innovative processes. Piero Bassetti defined innovation as the realisation of the improbable. “Improbable” refers to uncertainty, doubt and risk, things that are beyond our control and therefore require that we think twice about our responsibility. The sociologist ... Science and Governance: the EU report on Science and Governance presented at FGB

Which responsibility? – part 1- …This call for comments continues in the next entry…

The ambitious goal of this call is that of initiating an exploration of possible ways of reflecting on the concepts of responsibility and innovation, without losing sight of the social, political and economic contexts that grant a concrete and pragmatic scope to the mission of the Bassetti Foundation. When we mention the responsibility of innovation, ... Which responsibility? – part 1- …This call for comments continues in the next entry…