Ulrike Felt
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Ulrike Felt is Professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at the University of Vienna. With a PhD in physics and a habilitation in the social sciences, she addresses pressing issues at the intersection of science, innovation and society. Her research critically examines contemporary life in knowledge/innovation societies, changing research cultures, and the multiple ways in which societal actors engage with developments in science and technology.
She has recently been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant (Innovation Residues) to investigate the complex relationships between innovation and the environmental challenges created by left-behinds of innovation. Throughout her career she has been involved in policy-related activities in both national and European contexts, and is/has been a member of numerous advisory boards of academic institutions and major research projects. She was President of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) from 2017-2021. Since 2019 she is an elected member of the Academia Europaea. In 2022, she was a Falling Walls Global Call Winner for Breakthroughs in the Social Sciences and Humanities.
In May 2025 she joins the IAS for a one-month writing residency
Research Interests
responsible innovation; residues; environmental challenges; microplastics; digital residues; nuclear waste
Extending our understanding of responsible innovation
As innovation are increasingly seen as drivers of future developments of contemporary societies, it is crucial to examine the complex links between innovation and society. Most research focuses on how innovations emerge, are fostered and spread, paying much less attention to the many residues they produce. My project (Innovation Residues) offers a novel perspective by looking at innovation dynamics through the lens of residues, examining how societies understand, make sense of, live with and manage them, and how this matters in their relationship with innovation. Empirically the project takes nuclear waste, microplastics and data/digital residues as case studies and looks at three European countries in their relation to the European level.
What are our modes and infrastructures of caring for innovation residues and dealing with such long-term effects of innovation? By studying these residues, the project explores the complex evaluations that societies have to make between the immediate benefits of innovation and its long-term consequences. It reflects on the short/long-term visions, the justification for adopting innovations, questions of intergenerational justice, and the distribution of benefits and risks. It also raises crucial questions about whose values and knowledge are prioritized in decision-making, and how societies can manage the residues of technological progress to address environmental challenges in a responsible way.
Key Publications
Felt, Ulrike (2018). "Living a Real-world Experiment: Post-Fukushima Imaginaries and Spatial Practices of “Containing the Nuclear”". In Ibo van de Poel, Lotte Asveld and Donna Mehos (eds.), Experimentation beyond the laboratory: new perspectives on technology in society (Farnham: Ashgate): 49-78.
Felt, Ulrike (2015) "Keeping Technologies Out: Sociotechnical imaginaries and the formation of Austria's technopolitical identity." In Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim (Eds) Dreamscapes of Modernity: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power. (Chicago: Chicago University Press): 103-125.
Felt, Ulrike, Susanne Öchsner, Robin Rae, and Ekaterina Osipova (2023). "Doing co-creation: power and critique in the development of a European health data infrastructure." Journal of Responsible Innovation 10 (1). doi: 10.1080/23299460.2023.2235931."
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