THE UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND LIFE SCIENCES - VIENNA
(BOKU)
THE UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND LIFE SCIENCES - VIENNA
Founded in 1872, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) is an education and research institution for renewable resources in Vienna, Austria. BOKU responds to central societal challenges with its focus on problem-solving rather than a discipline-oriented structure, combining expertise in the fields of natural sciences, engineering as well as social and economic sciences (three-pillar principle).
Main activities and roles in SUNRISE
The Institute of Safety and Risk Sciences (ISR) at BOKU will contribute to the development of the methodological basis of the Integrated Impact Assessment Framework (IIAF) of SUNRISE to enable an assessment of environmental, social and economic impacts by the SSbD framework. To this end assessment criteria and indicators will be identified and harmonised according to the 3 tiers of the IIAF in WP3 of SUNRISE. These indicators will be further elaborated and thresholds, classes and assessment methods will be developed. To fill the current gap in knowledge, we will focus especially on approaches and tools for social and economic sustainability assessment. In particular the sustainability building blocks (i.e., assessment criteria, indicators, scoring thresholds, classes, toolbox) for the qualitative analysis in Tier 1 of the IIAF are in the focus of this work.
Besides the development of the methodology, ISR at BOKU will also support case studies to test the IIAF (WP5) and contribute to the SSbD policy implementation by helping to identify policy needs, align the SUNRISE research agenda to these needs and further develop the regulatory side of the SSbD framework.
Meet the BOKU team
Dr. Bernd Giese is deputy director of the Institute of Safety and Risk Sciences (ISR) at BOKU and head of the ISR research field of technology assessment in bio- and nanotechnology. His work aims to find sustainable, low-risk development paths for new technologies. The contributions of his group are made on behalf of and in collaboration with federal agencies, ministries, the EU Commission, and OECD working groups.
