Review of the 1st Decision-Making Week 2025

NextGen Decisions: Global Challenges, Local Action

Aim of the Week

The future of decision-making requires an interdisciplinary approach that integrates diverse perspectives to address complex global challenges. Participants critically reflected on the challenges and practical implications of the decisions that will shape the future - with special emphasis on digital governance, smart cities, and the ethical dimensions of technology and governance.

Schedule and Organisation

During five days of plenary sessions, roundtable discussions, experiments and on-site tours, the participants met with scholars from different academic fields as well as experts and practitioners from research centers, companies and public administration. The discussions and group works were centered around the topics:

• Decision-Making in the Digital Crowd: Why We Share, Believe, and Conform.
• Strategic Challenges in Local GovTech Implementation: Aligning Innovation with Institutional Capacity
• Moral Agency and Responsibility in AI-Supported Decision-Making. 
• Digitalization and AI in Public Administration: Citizens’ Expectations and Public Servants’ Support
• Urban Innovation Districts: Governing Innovation and Shaping Decision-Making

To prepare the week, three online- sessions were organized before the Decision-Making Week.

During the Excursions to the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and TOPAS Industriemathematik the participants gained valuable insights into the practical application of AI and its legal and moral implications.

Before and during the week, participants worked in groups on self-selected topics, which they presented on the final day of the event.

Participants

Participants came from a range of academic programmes (e.g. Decision Making, Geography, Law), while some joined as part of continuing education.

Lecturers and Speakers of the 1st 2025 edition

Maximilian Andres/Sebastian Fehrler/Sandra Kohl/Olexandr Nikolaychuk/Tanja Pritzlaff-Scheele/Markus Tepe (University of Bremen), Tom Becker (DFKI Bremen), Philipp Denter (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), Mitja Echim/ Matthias Knauer (TOPAS Industriemathematik), Martin Hagen (State Secretary at the Senator for Finance, Bremen), Tanja Klenk/Sylvia Veit (Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg), Lukas J. Meier (Harvard University), Sven Nyholm (LMU Munich), Larissa Galdino de Magalhees Santos (YUFE4Postdocs), et al.