Excellent research with societal responsibility

Science is faced with increasingly complex issues, combined with growing uncertainties in terms of knowledge and action. In the "dual role" attributed to it as both the cause and potential solver of problems, it is confronted with "fleeting" trust from society, but also with growing demands from society to make contributions to solving urgent problems as quickly as possible. Discussions within the scientific community about its "mission" and the challenges to be overcome, therefore, increasingly emphasize the need to strengthen the societal responsibility of science. This involves the question of how the science system can be steered in order to balance and realize the priorities between the freedom of science, its orientation towards competition and efficiency, its impact on society and its role in transformation processes.