On Monday, 7 September 2026, the new research center of the German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research (DIFIS-SOFO) was officially launched in Berlin.
Over the next eight years, DIFIS-SOFO will investigate how key technologies are transforming societal developments, social risks, and the institutions of the welfare state. At the same time, it will explore how social policy can actively shape technological change.
The importance of bringing together perspectives from different academic disciplines became particularly evident during the panel discussion at the opening event. Tanja Klenk discussed with Tanja Mehlstäubler, Katharina Hölzle, Christoph Bieber, and Nermin Fazlic at what stage the societal implications of new technologies should be considered in the process of technological development – and whether we should also turn the question around and ask what kind of societal futures we want to enable and what technologies we need to achieve them.
Further topics included how to design a welfare state that does not merely respond to the consequences of technological change but actively helps shape it from an early stage, the importance of digital sovereignty, and the potential implications of AI and robotics for the quality and distribution of work. The event thus also marked the beginning of eight years of collaborative research at DIFIS-SOFO.