Forum Alpbach TEC

Technologies offer an important key to overcoming these crisis phenomena, is the firm conviction of Hannes Androsch, doyen of the Alpbach Technology Talks from the very beginning. The traditional meeting of the technology community in Alpbach, curated by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and ORF Radio Ö1 in cooperation with the European Forum Alpbach, will take place this year from Thursday, August 25, (2 p.m.) to Saturday, August 27 (2 p.m.) - and after two years of virtual or hybrid implementation, this year it will once again be a face-to-face event. Participants can look forward to 40 hours of high-level debates in more than 20 plenary sessions, workshops and partner sessions; there will also be plenty of opportunities for networking.

The program will focus on solutions to the many problems we currently face. The general theme is "The New Europe" and follows the four thematic tracks of the European Forum Alpbach 2022: Securing Europe's Future in a Globalised World; The Climate Opportunity; The Financing of Europe's Future; and The Future of Democracy and the Rule of Law in Europe.

The energy crisis is coming to a head more and more. Starting with the Corona crisis and now massively intensified by the war in Ukraine, energy security has become a top issue of our days. A comprehensive transformation of our energy system is necessary - towards a system that simultaneously ensures security of supply and climate protection. A panel of top international researchers and industry representatives - including Bernd Rech (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin), Carla Seidel (BASF), Peter Schwab (voestalpine) and Sabine Herlitschka (Infineon) - will look for ways to completely rethink our energy system. The panel will discuss fundamental requirements for the future energy supply and ways to make our use of resources more resilient, sustainable and secure.

The energy crisis is embedded in the turmoil in which the international supply chains are caught up. These lifelines of the global economy have been running anything but smoothly since the outbreak of the pandemic: closed ports and slaughterhouses, shortages of containers, lack of truck drivers, etc. mean that supply routes for industry, but also for the global food supply, have become uncertain. High-profile experts from academia and practice, including Gabriel Felbermayr (WIFO), Stefan Thurner (Complexity Science Hub Vienna), Charles Godfray (Oxford University), and Andreas Gerstenmayer (AT&S), will analyze the underlying common mechanisms for seemingly unrelated developments from the perspective of complexity research and practice. The debate will lay a solid foundation for conceptualizing a more resilient and climate-friendly global economic system and provide answers to questions such as: What pathways might lead to a more resilient future? Is local production desirable, and to what extent is global production inevitable? Can transparency in supply networks be a game changer? What should policymakers do?

Just how crucial technology can be in shaping the future has recently become clear, particularly in biotechnology: innovative RNA-based vaccines have proved to be rapidly available and effective weapons in the fight against the Covid 19 pandemic. That this technology can do much more has become clear in laboratories around the world in recent years: numerous areas of medicine, especially the treatment of cancer, but also, for example, the regeneration of damaged tissue, can benefit greatly from RNA-based therapeutics. In cooperation with the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers, the opportunities of this medical field of hope will be discussed as well as the risks and hurdles - among others with Ormar Wiestler (Helmholtz), Helga Nowotny (Research Council), Klaus Cichutek (Paul Ehrlich Institute) and Christoph Huber (BioNTech).

Of course, technology is always a coin with two sides: Knives or automobiles are very useful things, but they can also be misused as lethal weapons. The same applies to information and communication technologies. Not least in the war in Ukraine, the Internet has become a war zone - an infowar and a cyberwar are raging: On the one hand, the real fighting on social networks is accompanied by videos of fighting, fleeing people and bombed buildings. In the battle for narratives, heroic stories line up seamlessly with disinformation. On the other side, hacktivists are engaged in an exchange of blows, using all digital means at their disposal: From the shadows of the Internet, warring hacker groups attempt to damage the other side and, for example, cripple infrastructures. In the high-profile plenary session "Battlerground Internet: Between Cyberwar and Infowar", leading scientists and military experts such as Markus Reisner (Military Academy Wr. Neustadt), Susanne Spahn (journalist) and Volker Kozok (German Armed Forces) will trace current developments, outline patterns in the cyber world and connections with the real world.

The current multiple crisis also threatens our concept of freedom, prosperity and security. This requires not only geopolitical efforts, but also new technological responses. Innovations help us to overcome the crises, but they are also increasingly becoming an important instrument of power politics. Whoever is ahead in the development of future technologies today can leave its mark on the world. Wedged between the power blocs of the USA and East Asia, the New Europe needs a powerful boost to catch up - with research & development, education and a spirit of innovation.

The meeting of the technology community in Alpbach will also address the role of the arts in the necessary transformations that our social and economic system is undergoing. An interdisciplinary debate in cooperation with the University of Applied Arts Vienna will outline new ways to encourage people to rethink and act, and to creatively prepare society for future upheavals.

"New Europe" is facing great challenges and it is urgent that new answers are given from Europe. In an RTI opening talk that has become a valued tradition, top representatives from politics and industry will be on hand to answer questions.

Finally, this year, personal exchange and intensive joint work on problems are once again possible: highly attractive and solid content sessions will be held on topics such as microelectronics, fake news, trust, climate protection in mobility and industry, the merging of people and technology, and artificial intelligence. This year's yearbook from the series "Discussing Technology" is also dedicated to the application of AI ("Applying AI") and will be made available free of charge to all participants of the Alpbach Technology Talks.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Further information and tickets: www.ait.ac.at/efatec