Responsibility is a vital issue for contemporary highly technologized societies. The environmental sustainability of novel materials and means of energy production, questions of accountability related to autonomous vehicles, and the impact of digitization on democracy are just a few examples that illustrate a growing need to address questions of responsible research and innovation as well as corporate responsibility.

The program addresses how we can negotiate, accept, and distribute responsibility for the technological challenges we are facing and deal with questions such as:

• What do we mean by “responsibility” in the context of science and technology?
• Who needs to be involved and which forms of knowledge production are necessary for the development of responsible decision-making practices?
• Which social challenges do emerging technologies create?
• How do notions of responsibility differ across cultural and policy contexts?
• How can we collectively govern and shape science and technology to further social goals?
• How can we democratize the governance of science and technology?

RESET students acquire broad and in-depth knowledge of theories, methods and techniques from various disciplines including STS, public policy, innovation studies, economics, law, media studies and ethics. Furthermore, they learn to reflect on STEM fields from a responsibility perspective.

Responsibility and responsiveness: A distinctive focus on the socio-technological dynamics and effects of innovation and research. In particular, graduates are able to identify and critically discuss social, economic, political, cultural and legal aspects of science and technology.

An immersive and practice-oriented education: An innovative term structure and hands-on immersive learning based on case studies, projects and an internship foster new forms of collaboration across institutions and disciplines.

Intensive academic support: Students benefit from small course sizes, in-depth discussions and individual support from RESET’s teaching staff. Furthermore, they get support from the Elite Network of Bavaria.

International competitiveness: The language of instruction is English and international student groups and projects help prepare students for a global working environment. Students are able to acquire expert knowledge at the cutting edge of international technoscience research as well as extensive communication and project management skills. In addition, they have the option of doing their internship or a semester abroad.

In recent years, the fast pace of societal, political, economic, environmental, and technological transformations has been creating new and urgent challenges. RESET responds to these challenges by training students for public and private sector careers in ways that inflect advances in science and technology with questions of governance, responsibility, responsiveness, precaution, and care in innovation processes from agenda-setting to usage. This highly innovative M.A. program thus fulfills a growing and urgent demand for jobs at the intersection of science, innovation, and society, which we did not know existed a couple of years ago.

RESET graduates are qualified internationally for a wide range of career fields within governmental institutions, international organizations, innovative firms (both established companies and start-ups), NGOs, think tanks, consulting and academia. They are able to critically reflect upon and contribute to responsible research and innovation in emerging sociotechnical fields such as sustainable energy solutions, industrial biotechnology, biomedical health care, the Internet of Things, big data and urban infrastructure. Furthermore, the degree qualifies graduates to pursue advanced research on a doctoral level.

In both master’s programs, students deal with the interdependencies of science, technology (development), politics and social dynamics. The „Science and Technology Studies“ (M.A. STS) program has a greater focus on the foundations of science and technology studies as a field of research, the philosophy and history of science and technology, methods of qualitative research and in-depth exposure to specific research topics. The program „Responsibility in Science, Engineering and Technology“ (M.A. RESET) also deals with the above-mentioned topics but approaches them from a more practice-oriented perspective, always putting emphasis on the question: What does responsibility mean in this context?

In the first semester, students of both programs learn the basics of qualitative social research. They are familiarized with specific methods as well as their underlying philosophical assumptions. The RESET M.A. program is dedicated to practice-oriented learning. In a semester-long immersion project, students learn to apply theories to a current controversial debate in small project groups. Closely related to this, the module „Technology and Society“ examines the interactions between science, technology and society in five blocks (politics, economics, law, ethics and media). The STS M.A. program, on the other hand, takes a closer look at the foundations and history of the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). How has STS developed as a field from sociology, philosophy, history and anthropology? Students are familiarized with the development and approaches of major STS currents by learning about the most important theories, researchers and case studies. In the modules STS2 (“Philosophy of Science and Technology”) and STS3 (“History of Science and Technology”), they learn about the philosophical foundations and historical developments of science and technology (development).

In the second semester, both M.A. programs are devoted to an in-depth examination of core STS topics. Students can select three core topics in accordance with their interests, e.g. biomedicine or industries and innovation. Furthermore, they attend STEM courses and analyze the respective disciplinary knowledge cultures (RESET students also focus on issues of responsibility in the respective discipline). Furthermore, STS M.A. students deepen their knowledge in social science methods whereas RESET M.A. students acquire practical skills e.g. in moderation, intercultural communication or international project management.

In the third semester, STS M.A. students devote themselves to a selection of four advanced STS topics whereas RESET M.A. students apply their acquired knowledge in an internship and present and discuss their internship experiences and analyses in a self-organized mini symposium (the “Science School”). Furthermore, they acquire science communication skills in the “Master’s Blog” course. Both M.A. programs also include a “Practicing Research” module, in which students work on research questions or a full research project to help prepare them for their master’s thesis. The fourth semester is then dedicated to the master’s thesis.