Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, is a research institution within the ETH domain and plays an important role in education, science and innovation in Switzerland. It specializes in applications, focused research and development, and provides high-level services in the field of sustainable materials science and technology. Its core tasks are innovative collaboration with industry and public institutions, ensuring the safety of people and the environment, knowledge propagation and university-level teaching. The Technology and Society Lab (TSL) is an interdisciplinary research unit of Empa studying opportunities and risks of emerging technologies. A team of about 30 researchers is active in the fields of information and communication technologies, nanoscale technologies, renewable energy and resource management. TSL analyses technologies embedded in social processes, focusing on the interactions among technology, environment and society with an emphasis on material flows connected with emerging technology applications. The Lab creates knowledge that supports industry in developing technologies that are beneficial and acceptable for society. It helps to minimize the risks of new technologies and contributes to sustainability by giving early warnings of critical developments in technology applications.
