The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre and The Hawke Research Institute are pleased to present its first public lecture in Singapore on Monday 19 October, presenting ‘The cunning of uncertainty’ with Professor Helga Nowotny.

Uncertainty is inextricably interwoven and enacted in our notions and imaginaries of the future. Currently, the future appears as fragile and fragmented, a plural and contradictory mixture of desired and feared imaginations. Uncertainty is a powerful incentive in the striving for new knowledge and an inherent part of fundamental research. The enormous amount of data presently available includes more effective ways of anticipating what lies ahead. But the more we know, the more we also realise what we do not know as yet.

Professor Helga Nowotny is Professor emerita at ETH Zurich in social studies of science. She was President of the European Research Council (ERC) between 2010 and 2013 and founding member and Vice-President from 2007 onwards. Currently she is Chair of the ERA Council Forum Austria and Vice-President of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Professor Nowotny has published widely in social studies of science; science, technology and innovation policy; and on social time. She was also a panel member for the forum on ‘The Future of Higher Education in Australia’ held on Tuesday 13 October. A podcast is available on the Hawke Centre website.

Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, The Hawke Research Institute and the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore.