TransforM

TransforM hosts Roundtable with Martha Minow on Justice and Transformative Technologies
2026-04-28 12:00 - 14:00 UTC | TUM ThinkTank, Richard-Wagner-Straße 1, München, 80333
On the 28th of April, TransforM, alongside the TUM Think Tank and Hochschule für Politik, will host a special roundtable with distinguished guest Martha Minow. Prof. Minow holds the 300th Anniversary University Professorship at Harvard University and is the 2025 recipient of the TUM Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Social Sciences and Technology for her exceptional and field-defining contributions at the intersection of law, social sciences, and technology. Known as a leading human rights scholar, as well as figure bringing scholarship to issues of identity, race and equality, the TransforM Cluster was delighted to get a chance to discuss the impacts of transformative technologies with her.
TransforM PI’s Silke Beck, Sabina Leonelli and Sebastian Pfotenhauer, along with Sandra Cortesi (TUM) and Christian Fieseler (BI Norwegian Business School) will join Prof. Minow on the roundtable to explore questions around technology, justice, and governance.

TransforM helps kick-off a new cohort of Friedrich Schiedel Fellows at TUM
2026-04-30 12:00 - 15:00 | TUM ThinkTank, Richard-Wagner-Straße 1, München, 80333
On April 30th, TransforM will co-host the kick-off of the third round of Friedrich Schiedel Fellows alongside the TUM Think Tank and the Hochschule für Politik München. This fellowship program has the goal of supporting early career researchers at TUM, at the advanced PhD and Postdocs stages, to explore how we can employ emerging technologies for the benefit of society, and ensure that emerging technologies are developed responsibly, human-centred, and democratically.
This years’ selection and review process will focus additionally on the role of transformative technologies and invited researchers to submit ideas related to the different focus areas of the TransforM cluster.
From improving digital health and urban infrastructures, to employing AI responsibly in educational settings, to providing a deeper understanding of what drives innovation ecosystems, these fellows will develop their research to empowering innovators, fostering collaborations and creating public interest technology.

TransforM Futures: Let's Talk About Moonshot Innovations
2026-05-08 17:30 - 20:00 | Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb, Herzog-Max-Straße 4, München, 80333, Germany
The Munich Center for Transformative Technologies and Societal Change (TransforM) invites you to our first installment of the TranforM Futures public event series.
Let’s talk about MOONSHOT INNOVATIONS! This event will feature a panel discussion with experts at the nexus of academia and industry with a focus on when, why and how moonshot innovations emerge, scale-up and effect real societal change. Following the discussion, there will be a chance for audience interaction and networking.

Workshop: The Impact of AI on Employment
2026-05-12 | ifo Institut – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung an der Universität München e.V., Poschingerstr. 5, München, 81679, Germany
Artificial intelligence is considered the most significant technological innovation of our time with profound implications for labor markets, businesses, and economic policy decisions. The workshop “Economic and Societal Impacts of AI,” which CESifo hosted at the ifo Institute in Munich on December 5 and 6 in collaboration with the TransforM Cluster of Excellence, centered on what this transformation means and how it can be shaped.
TransforM is the cluster of excellence for social sciences at TUM. The ifo Institute is a participating partner. The aim of the project, which is funded by the German Research Foundation, is to analyze the societal, economic, and political impacts of transformative technologies like AI at an early stage. To this end, TransforM integrates economics, social sciences, law, technology, and computer science with the goal of more rapidly contributing scientific expertise to public discourse and policy consulting.

The workshop will be centered on crucial economic policy issues:
How is AI transforming employment and the qualifications required?
What new competitive structures are emerging?
And how do businesses respond when data and automation become central factors of production?
