Athena Institute

The combination of progress in science and technology, the emergence of new broad interdisciplinary fields and the technology-driven nature of the innovation process creates new problems in society, amongst others with equity, environmental and health issues. The continuous challenge is therefore to realize the optimal potential of emerging science and technology fields, by integrating strategies addressing the anticipated possibly negative aspects, during the innovation process.

The focus of research at Athena

The question we posed in our department more than 25 years ago is: how can science and technology development contribute to the improvement of health and well-being in a sustainable and equitable way?

The executive director of Athena is Prof. Dr. Joske Bunders.

Athena Institute consists of two departments:

• Innovation in the Health and Life sciences is headed by Prof.dr. Joske Bunders. Its work involves the analysis decision-making processes on innovations in order to develop effective strategies for the management of innovation processes in line with societal priorities.
• The Communication in the Health and Life sciences  (WTC) is headed by Prof.dr. Jacqueline Broerse. It focuses on knowledge development for effective communication between science and society.

Mission

The mission of Athena is to scientifically study and design interfaces between science and society to contribute to:

• worldwide research efforts on a robust academic and societal understanding of key factors in innovation processes;
• enriching science with increased societal legitimacy and improved research utilization;
• an improved societal awareness of how innovations may benefit the sustainability, equity and fairness of societies.

To this end Athena conducts scientific research and provides teaching in bachelors and masters programs in its own faculty and in other faculties. In addition it advices (inter-)national authorities. 

Activities
The activities of the Athena Institute include research, education and advice in order to address issues at the interface between science and society. The Institute plays an important role as innovator of transition processes in fields such as Biotechnology, Genomics and Health.