Anticipation – Serendipity – Control

Hardly anyone would deny that research is an uncertain business. Particularly in the field of the life sciences, many would argue that – besides skill, intellect and smart research strategy – it requires a good deal of luck to be successful and truly innovative. At the same time, there increasingly are expectations to anticipate where research processes may lead and to be accountable for one’s performance in terms of tangible output. Funding institutions, for example, expect projects to contain detailed research plans, timelines and promises of future impact, while societal actors call for increased reflection on - and assuming of responsibility for – implications of potential applications.

In this workshop, we want to move beyond the obvious tensions between anticipation, serendipity and control in research and ask: How could practices of anticipation look like that do not put researchers in the paradoxical situation of predicting the unpredictable or of being made accountable for luck or misfortune? And how could such a notion of anticipation help prevent negative outcomes and bring desirable futures into being?