Anja is an STS researcher and postdoctoral researcher at the TUM STS Department, passionate about including publics in discourses on science, technology, and innovation.
Anja works in the Innovation Network for Neurotechnology in Mental Health, where Anja researches the social dimensions of neuroscientific research and neurotechnological development, as well as patient participation in these processes. As part of this work, Anja joined the Inaugural Oxford Winter Neuroethics School and continues to serve as an active member of the Alumni Network. Prior to her current position, Anja was a research associate in the EU Horizon 2020–funded research initiative Scaling up co-creation – avenues and limits for integrating society in science and innovation (SCALINGS), a European research initiative (2018–2021) that focused on the situatedness and mainstreaming of co-creation practices across countries and technological domains. Drawing on this context, Anja developed the research questions for her dissertation project (2025), in which she examined the value propositions and effects of co-creation in discourse and practice.
During her work as a research assistant, she developed a strong passion for teaching and training young scientists. Courses Anja has taught include Qualitative Social Science Research Methods, Subject-Specific Qualifications in Biomedicine, Co-creation Lab, STS in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and Practices and Politics of Science and Technology.
Before joining TUM, Anja completed an M.Sc. in Sustainable Energy Science at the Iceland School of Energy, Reykjavík University, and a B.A. in Political and Administrative Science at the University of Konstanz, and has completed a traineeship at the Delegation of the European Union to Iceland.
TUM Innovation Network for Neurotechnology in Mental Health (NEUROTECH),
Time Frame: 2022-2026
Funding Institution: TUM Innovation Networks
Description: As part of the TUM Innovation Network for Neurotechnology in Mental Health (NEUROTECH), we follow an innovative embedded ethics and social science approach that we recently developed in a collaborative effort and have started to implement at TUM. This approach is based on the interdisciplinary integration of ethics and social science researchers into the basic science, clinical and technology development aspects of the research processes of neurotechnology. Based on this integration, we accompany and analyze the research and development processes of the NEUROTECH network, for example when building novel AI-driven therapeutic interventions. We then feed back our analysis of potential ethical and social issues – ranging, e.g., from algorithmic bias to data protection aspects to impacts on patient autonomy and the future doctor-patient-relationship – into development processes in real-time in order to identify, reflect on and address any ethical and social issues as they arise.
To complement this analysis, we work in participatory ways with relevant stakeholders in society that are affected by the technology and its implementation, such as patients and patient organizations, doctors and nursing staff. We engage with these stakeholders, explore their perspectives and expertises and make this knowledge available to the NEUROTECH network so that it can be considered in research processes and the development of technologies as well as their clinical implementation
Time Frame: 2018-2021
Funding Institution: EU Horizon 2020
- Ruess, A. K., & Müller, R. (2024). Finding solutions to problems that never existed: a case study of co-creation in the municipality of the future. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23299460.2024.2391574
- Schönweitz, F. B., Ruess, A. K. & Müller, R. (2024). From Being Embedded in Practice: Working Situated and Interdisciplinary in the Neurosciences and Neurocomputation as Ethicists and Social Scientists, In: M. Ienca & G. Starke, Brains and Machines: Towards a unified Ethics of AI and Neuroscience – Developments in Neuroethics and Bioethics, 7, pp. 225–240. London: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.dnb.2024.02.001
- Müller, R., Ruess, A. K., Eisenberger, I., Buocz, T., Damjanovic, D., Hofer, A. & Sedef, A. (2021). Co-creating European Futures: Innovation, Participation and Co-creation in Europe 2030. Munich: SCALINGS.
- Ruess, A. K., Müller, R. & Pfotenhauer, S. M. (2023). Opportunity or Responsibility? Tracing Co-creation in the European Policy Discourse. Science & Public Policy, 50, 433–444. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scac079
- Willem, T., Fritzsche, M.-C., Zimmermann, B. M., Sierawska, A., Breuer, S., Braun, M., Ruess, A. K., Bak, M., Schönweitz, F., Meier, L. J., Fiske, A., Tigard, D., Müller, R., McLennan, S. y Buyx, A. (2025). Embedded Ethics in Practice: A Toolbox for Integrating the Analysis of Ethical and Social Issues into Healthcare AI Research. Science and Engineering Ethics, 31(3), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-024-00523-y
- Schönweitz, F. B., Ruess, A. K., McLennan, S., Buyx, A. & Ienca, M. (2024). Where Is the Exit? The Ethical Importance of Exit Plans in Clinical Trials with Neural Implants. Brain Stimulation, 17(5), 1145-1154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2024.09.010
- Müller, R., Clare, A. & Ruess, A. K. (2023). STS and Bioethics: Forging New Synergies for Exploring the Potentials and Pitfalls of Public Engagement with New Biotechnologies, The American Journal of Bioethics, 23, 72–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2023.2207505
- Müller, R., Ruess, A. K., Schönweitz, F. B., Buyx, A., Gil Ávila, C. & Ploner, M. (2023). Next steps for global collaboration to minimize racial and ethnic bias in neuroscience. Nature Neuroscience, 26, 1132–1133. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01369-6
- Astola, M., Laes, E., Bombaerts, G., Ryszawska, B., Rozwadowska, M., Szymanski, P., Ruess, A. K., Nyborg, S., & Hansen, M. (2022). Community Heroes and Sleeping Members: Interdependency of the Tenets of Energy Justice. Science and Engineering Ethics, 28, 45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-022-00384-3
- Ruess, A. K. & Pfotenhauer, S. M. (2021). Evaluation Zukunftskommune Ulm: Abschlussbericht, München: TUM.
- Müller, R., Ruess, A. K., Eisenberger, I., Buocz, T., Damjanovic, D., Hofer, A. & Sedef, A. (2021). Co-creating European Futures: Innovation, Participation and Co-creation in Europe 2030. Munich: SCALINGS.
- Hot Topics in Life Sciences, Winter Semester 2022/2023, 2024/2025, and 2025/2026: This course explores neurotechnological applications in mental health through the lens of Science and Technology Studies (STS) to better understand how emerging scientific knowledge and technologies influence patients and society, and likewise how patients and societies influence the development of science and technologies.
- Neuroscience and Society, Summer Semester 2025 & Winter Semester 2025/2026: This course explores neurotechnological applications in mental health through the lens of Science and Technology Studies (STS) to better understand how emerging scientific knowledge and technologies influence patients and society, and likewise how patients and societies influence the development of science and technologies.
- Methods I (Data & Society), Summer Semester 2025: This course familiarizes students with the foundations of different qualitative social science research methods and equips them with the skills to conduct their own research projects.
- Methods I (STS & Reset), Winter Semester 2020/2021 & 2021/2022: This course familiarizes students with the foundations of different qualitative social science research methods and equips them with the skills to conduct their own research projects.
- STS in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Summer Semester 2020 & 2021: This course supports students in exploring STEM contexts through a social scientific lens.
- Co-creation Lab, Summer Semester 2021: This course is designed for students to become active co-creators of their own micro-research projects in real-life contexts, i.e., the development of local mobility hubs. Students take on roles as researchers and interact, under the teachers’ supervision, with publics, local governments, and other affected stakeholders.
- Practices and Politics of Science and Technology, Winter Semester 2019/2020: This course is designed as a comprehensive introduction to familiarize students with a range of STS theories and concepts.
Environments, Acoustics & Resilience in Urban Soundscapes (Oxford Winter Neuroethics School, Oxford, 2026)
Advancing Patient Engagement in Pain Research: Insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS Italia, Milano, 2025)
Co-creation as techno-economic reconfiguration of participation: What role for STS? (EASST/4S Joint Conference, Amsterdam, 2024)
An ethics of scale in neuroscience? Exploring research ethics in small versus large patient cohorts (EASST/4S Joint Conference, Amsterdam, 2024)
A fridge, a dinner party and a brain implant – Empirical encounters with researcher-patient relationships in cognitive neuroscience (PaSTIS, Padova, 2023)
“In a way, she’s our most important team member“ – Tracing reconfigurations of professional-patient encounters in cognitive neuroscience (Nordic STS Conference, Oslo, 2023)
The Tailor and the Sparrow: Co-creating the Municipality of the Future (EASST 2022 Congress, Madrid, 2022)
Co-creating Future Mobility: Testfelder als Zukunfts- und Beteiligungsorte (Digitales Frühstück, Verkehrsministerium Baden-Württemberg, 2021)
Towards a Map of Multiple Roads: Situating the Future of Co-creation in Europe (4S Annual Meeting, virtual, 2021)
Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung in der Smarten Stadt (Digitaltag, Stadt Ulm, 2020)
Von Smart City zu Smart Citizens: Digitalisierung aus Bürger*innensicht und praktische Herausforderungen von Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung in der digitalen Stadt (IT Planungsrat in cooperation with Sabine Meigel, City of Ulm, cancelled due to COVID-19, 2020)
Old Wine in New Bottles: Tracing Co-creation in the European Policy Discourse (EASST/4S Joint Conference, virtual, 2020)
Impulse für Forschendes Lernen und praxisorientierte Forschungsansätze (Kolloquium Technik und Gesellschaft, Universität Ulm, 2019)
(De-)Constructing Publics? Living Labs and the Demos Problem (4S Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 2019)