Stuttgart-based research centre specializing in risk governance, public engagement, and societal acceptance of emerging technologies across EU research projects.
DIALOGIK is a non-profit research centre in Stuttgart specializing in risk communication, risk governance, and public engagement with science and technology. They help research consortia understand how societies perceive emerging technologies — from nanomaterials to nuclear energy to smart homes — and design processes for meaningful citizen participation in decisions about those technologies. Their core competence is bridging the gap between technical risk assessment and public acceptance, making them the go-to partner when a project needs to ensure its innovations are not just technically sound but socially acceptable. They produce policy guidance, communication strategies, and participatory frameworks that help consortia translate research into real-world adoption.
Central theme across caLIBRAte (nanomaterial risk assessment), NANORIGO (nanotechnology risk governance framework), INFACT (acceptable exploration technologies), and HoNESt (nuclear energy and society).
PROSO (societal engagement under RRI, coordinated), LIV.IN (co-creation of smart futures), RECIPES (engagement for reconciling science and precaution), and REAL DEAL (deliberative approaches).
PROSO explicitly promoted RRI engagement, LIV.IN implemented RRI through co-creation, and RECIPES reconciled science, innovation, and precaution.
caLIBRAte developed risk governance systems for nanomaterials, NANORIGO established a nanotechnology risk governance framework.
REAL DEAL (2022-2025) focuses on green leadership through deliberative approaches, environmental justice, and gender equality — a new direction for the organization.
In their early H2020 period (2015-2018), DIALOGIK focused heavily on risk assessment for specific technologies — nanomaterials, nuclear energy, mineral exploration — and on understanding barriers and incentives for citizen science and third-sector engagement. From 2019 onward, a clear shift emerged toward co-creation methods, broader governance frameworks, and the intersection of precaution with innovation, culminating in their most recent project on environmental justice and deliberative democracy. The trajectory shows a move from analyzing public perception of specific technologies toward designing participatory governance systems for societal transitions like the Green Deal.
DIALOGIK is evolving from technology-specific risk communication toward broader deliberative governance for sustainability transitions, making them increasingly relevant for Green Deal and Just Transition projects.
DIALOGIK operates almost exclusively as a specialist partner (9 of 10 projects), contributing risk governance and public engagement expertise to consortia led by others. They coordinated only once (PROSO), suggesting they prefer the role of embedded expert rather than project manager. With 165 unique partners across 30 countries from just 10 projects, they work in large, diverse consortia and rarely repeat partnerships — they are a trusted plug-in partner that different consortium builders call upon when they need societal engagement expertise.
Remarkably broad network for a small research centre: 165 unique consortium partners across 30 countries from just 10 projects, averaging over 16 partners per project. This reflects their participation in large-scale coordination and support actions rather than concentrated bilateral relationships.
DIALOGIK occupies a rare niche: they are neither a pure social science institute nor a technical lab, but a research centre purpose-built for the interface between technology and society. Their name — literally "Dialogue: Communication and Cooperation Research" — signals exactly what they deliver. For consortium builders, they solve a specific problem: when your project develops a new technology and the call requires societal engagement, risk communication, or responsible innovation work packages, DIALOGIK brings both the academic rigour and the practical methods to make those deliverables credible rather than token.
