Control of Systemic Risks in Global Networks – A Grand Challenge to Information Systems Research

The emergence of global networks also results in the occurrence of systemic risks that might affect the stability of the overall system. To cope with these risks, this workshop on the “Control of Systemic Risks in Global Networks” provides a platform for the collection and discussion of innovative approaches, methods, and theories but also of practical problems from the areas of simulation, artificial intelligence, operations research, and statistics. This enables the exchange of experiences and methods between scientists and practitioners

Accelerating Scientific Discovery by Formulating Grand Scientific Challenges

One important question for science and society is how to best promote scientific progress. Inspired by the great success of Hilbert's famous set of problems, the FuturICT project tries to stimulate and focus the efforts of many scientists by formulating Grand Challenges, i.e. a set of fundamental, relevant and hardly solvable scientific questions.Comment: To appear in EPJ Special Topics. For related work see http://www.futurict.eu and http://www.soms.ethz.c

Researching ‘‘Grand Challenges’’ - A ‘‘Grand Challenge’’

Attempts have been made to identify the grand challenges (GC) in quite different disciplines including Computer Science. These major problems should be solved within one or two generations and the solution would have great societal and economic impact. GCs are to be distinguished from the improvement of methods where the basic problem has already been solved (“emerging fields”). Among other purposes, a common understanding of GCs within a community helps to focus efforts and resources and to create a climate of competition. With our study we try to gain an impression whether a certain consensus is within reach in Business and Information Systems Engineering (BISE; Wirtschaftsinformatik, WI) in the German speaking area. We used a multi-staged opinion survey among scientists and practitioners of WI and could establish an order of precedence concerning the most important GCs. At the top ranks the item “Control of systemic risks in global networks”, followed by “Humanlike Information Systems in business context”, “Determining the influences on the degree of automation und integration”, “Influence of WI on the solution of semantic data processing problems”, and “Overcoming of communication barriers in inter-company integration”. We discuss drawbacks of the GC concept as well as attempts to improve the method. One main problem is to distinguish the terms “grand challenges” (GC), “emerging fields” (EF), and “new research goals” (NR)

From Social Simulation to Integrative System Design

As the recent financial crisis showed, today there is a strong need to gain "ecological perspective" of all relevant interactions in socio-economic-techno-environmental systems. For this, we suggested to set-up a network of Centers for integrative systems design, which shall be able to run all potentially relevant scenarios, identify causality chains, explore feedback and cascading effects for a number of model variants, and determine the reliability of their implications (given the validity of the underlying models). They will be able to detect possible negative side effect of policy decisions, before they occur. The Centers belonging to this network of Integrative Systems Design Centers would be focused on a particular field, but they would be part of an attempt to eventually cover all relevant areas of society and economy and integrate them within a "Living Earth Simulator". The results of all research activities of such Centers would be turned into informative input for political Decision Arenas. For example, Crisis Observatories (for financial instabilities, shortages of resources, environmental change, conflict, spreading of diseases, etc.) would be connected with such Decision Arenas for the purpose of visualization, in order to make complex interdependencies understandable to scientists, decision-makers, and the general public.Comment: 34 pages, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c

Rising Powers and State Transformation: The Case of China

This article draws attention to the transformation of statehood under globalisation as a crucial dynamic shaping the emergence and conduct of ‘rising powers’. That states are becoming increasingly fragmented, decentralised and internationalised is noted by some international political economy and global governance scholars, but is neglected in International Relations treatments of rising powers. This article critiques this neglect, demonstrating the importance of state transformation in understanding emerging powers’ foreign and security policies, and their attempts to manage their increasingly transnational interests by promoting state transformation elsewhere, particularly in their near-abroad. It demonstrates the argument using the case of China, typically understood as a classical ‘Westphalian’ state. In reality, the Chinese state’s substantial disaggregation profoundly shapes its external conduct in overseas development assistance and conflict zones like the South China Sea, and in its promotion of extraterritorial governance arrangements in spaces like the Greater Mekong Subregion

Global Crises and the Role of BISE

The COVID-19 pandemic has surprised the modern world and has presented challenges on an unprecedented scale. Within a few months of the first case being reported at the end of 2019, almost every country in the world is now affected (WHO 2020). Restrictions on public life were not made fast enough and, in some cases, were not sufficient to stop the global spread. Here we see the dark sides of globalization. The crisis is coming with an intensity undreamt of for today’s generations, affecting all areas of life and, at least temporarily, fundamentally changing them. The social, economic and political effects are clearly noticeable and solutions are being sought everywhere to mitigate the crisis and both its direct and indirect consequences

Launching the Grand Challenges for Ocean Conservation

The ten most pressing Grand Challenges in Oceans Conservation were identified at the Oceans Big Think and described in a detailed working document:A Blue Revolution for Oceans: Reengineering Aquaculture for SustainabilityEnding and Recovering from Marine DebrisTransparency and Traceability from Sea to Shore:  Ending OverfishingProtecting Critical Ocean Habitats: New Tools for Marine ProtectionEngineering Ecological Resilience in Near Shore and Coastal AreasReducing the Ecological Footprint of Fishing through Smarter GearArresting the Alien Invasion: Combating Invasive SpeciesCombatting the Effects of Ocean AcidificationEnding Marine Wildlife TraffickingReviving Dead Zones: Combating Ocean Deoxygenation and Nutrient Runof