Researcher Profile

Field: Societal Futures

Main Research: research and innovation governance

Experience: Michael J. Bernstein applies descriptive and participatory social science research methods to align research and innovation with long-term societal interests, like sustainability. He currently focuses on ethical assessment of new and emerging technologies for the European Commission funded TechEthos project. In addition, he is developing foresight and strategic planning tools to support business innovation for social value (The Global KAITEKI Center, Arizona State University). From 2017-2019 he served as a work-package leader of an EC-funded project to assess and advance responsible research and innovation across European R&I funding (NewHoRRIzon). He has supported transdisciplinary urban sustainability (GLOCULL); staffed a participatory Technology Assessment (pTA) to inform U.S. Department of Energy decision-making about siting nuclear waste (ECAST); and evaluated science policy STEM education programs (SOtL). He has experience collaborating with formal and informal science and engineering educators, researchers, policy makers, businesses, and civil society organizations at local, national, and international levels. Michael has contributed to policy and evaluation initiatives on climate preparedness, resilience, and adaptation for the U.S. White House Council on Environmental Quality and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

• Mapping Ostrom’s common-pool resource systems coding handbook to the coupled infrastructure systems framework to enable comparative research
  Author(s): Bernstein MJ*, del Mar Mancha-Cisneros M*, Tyson M*, Brady U, Rubiños CA, Shin HC, Vallury S, Smith-Heisters S, and Ratajczyk E
  Journal: International Journal of the Commons, 13 (2019)
• Improve alignment of research policy and societal values.
  Author(s): Novitzky P, Bernstein MJ, Blok V, Braun R, Chan TT, Lamers W, Loeber A, Meijer I, Lindner R, Griessler E
  Journal: Science, 369 (2020)
• The Future of Aging in Smart Environments: Four Scenarios for 2050
  Author(s): Withycombe Keeler L, Bernstein MJ
  Journal: Futures, 133 (2021)
• Ethics of climate engineering: Don’t forget technology has an ethical aspect too.
  Author(s): Brooks, L., Cannizzaro, S., Umbrello, S., Bernstein, M. J., & Richardson, K.
  Journal: International Journal of Information Management (2021)
• Can Europe Help the United States Avoid a $115 Billion Boondoggle?
  Author(s): Bernstein MJ
  Journal: Issues in Science and Technology (2021)
• The Process to Find a Process for Governance: Consent-Based Siting and Nuclear Waste Management in the United States.
  Author(s): Richter J, Bernstein MJ, Farooque M
  Journal: Energy Research and Social Science (2022)
• The Societal Readiness Thinking Tool: A Practical Resource for Maturing the Societal Readiness of Research Projects
  Author(s): Bernstein MJ, Nielsen MW, Alnor E, Bergmans J, Birkving AL, Chan TT, Griessler E, van der Clippe W, Meijer I, Nicolaisen PB, Nieminen M, Novitzky P, Mejlgaard N
  Journal: Science and Engineering Ethics (2022)

• Publications AIT publications database