Interview: Michel Ida, CEA Tech

You have been leading CEA-Tech’s efforts to assess the societal impacts of its research since 2021.
What are the program’s objectives?
The first, and most important, is to make sure our project, program, and partnership strategies incorporate these concerns, something we have already begun to do with ecodesign.
Our research has a powerful impact on our lives, on our cognitive systems, and on our ability to function as a society. We must learn to embrace this complexity and engage in meaningful debate so that we can learn from it.
The work we are doing here also has to make its way into our organizational culture and our communications.

How is your work organized?
We have a community of 200 CEA employee volunteers and a circle of 30 outside members that includes experts in philosophy, religion, anthropology, psychology, and other fields. Every year we run four or five meetings on specific topics and, starting in 2022, we will be running two major events per year. Our event on the impact of virtual/real superimposition on April 7 was attended by 600 people.

Do you have plans to expand the community?
Research institutes on the GIANT campus can join, and we do interact with similar initiatives, not only in France, but internationally as well.
Given everything that is going on, it is urgent that we look at our impacts on society. The number of science deniers is growing, fake news is all over social media, and up and coming scientists are seeking meaning in what they do.

Contact: michel.ida@cea.fr

Our next major event will take place on November 22 and will address:

• The quest for strategic autonomy and sovereignty in digital technology, energy, and health: Looking at societal impacts.
• The societal impacts of environmentally respectful climate-change-adapted communities.

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