Call for Papers / Special Issue zur Förderrichtlinie im International Journal of Social Robotics

Interdisciplinary research-teams of the funding line “Robotic Systems for Nursing Care”, 11 different interdisciplinary research groups in the fields of:

  • Technical science
  • Nursing science
  • Ethics
  • Social sciences.

Submissions from all over the world concerning the topic are also encouraged. Closing date: January 15, 2024
Researchers from projects of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research funding line “Robotic Systems for Nursing Care” (funding period 2019-2023) are invited to submit contributions on their respective robotics as interdisciplinary project teams. Various robotics in the fields of social robotics, rehabilitation robotics, service robotics, socio-emotional robotics were promoted in this funding line.

In terms of content, articles should include a presentation of the project in question. In addition, the technical procedure in the context of the development of robotics must be addressed in each case, and a social science, nursing science, and ethical science perspective must also be included.

All projects have conducted empirical evaluations; some in the context of field tests in real settings, some in the laboratory. As an objective of the special issue, the empirical findings of the funding line are to be presented.
To place the results in an international context to the state of research, submissions from interdisciplinary research teams worldwide are welcomed.

Further information.

Call for Participation / Abstracts

Submissions open: Special Issue on Creative Approaches to Appropriation and Design: Novel Robotic Systems for Heterogeneous Contexts

We invite contributions on how robotic systems can be developed in participatory and creative ways or used in heterogeneous contexts (e.g., nursing homes, hospitals, factories, etc.) and what different disciplines can say about negotiation and design discoveries during the design processes or using robots (both speculative and in-situ use).

We want this to be the most up-to-date and impactful interdisciplinary collection of research on this topic.

Why publish in our Research Topic?

Alongside a top group of authors, your work will be published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI, a leading journal in the field with a Journal Impact Factor of 4.331 and a CiteScore of 4.6. You can read more about the collection here.

The deadline for abstract submission is 26/03/23 and for manuscript submission 26/07/23, but Frontiers’ fast-track review process, led by the editorial team, means each article is published online as soon as it’s been successfully peer-reviewed and accepted (typically within 61 days).

As an open access journal, publishing fees are applied to accepted articles. Please contact roboticsandai.submissions@frontiersin.org to discuss fees, institutional waivers, and discounts.

For further information contact Richard Paluch, University of Siegen, Germany

Felix Carros, University of Siegen, Germany
Dr. Katerina Cerna, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Dr. Galina Volkova, International Institute for Socio-Informatics, Germany
Prof. Dr. Mohammad Obaid, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller, University of Siegen, Germany

07.2022: The digital transformation of care as a video

Those who did not have the opportunity to attend the symposium “The digital transformation of care” on 18.11.2021 can watch the presentations and discussions again here. Four INQA experimental rooms (DiCo, EXPERTISE 4.0, Sprint Doku and DigiKiK) present and discuss their results. Fabian Langenbruch (Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs – Digitalization and the World of Work), Dr. Marlen Melzer (Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) and Prof. Dr. Manfred Hülsken-Giesler (Director of the Institute for Health Research and Education – IGB) participated in the opening talk.

06.2022: Video: Digital care – how should that work?

The handover podcast in the Future Forum of the GesundheitsCampus Osnabrück as part of the Digital Week: Stephanie Raudies from the project AdaMeKoR, coordinator for care projects at Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V. and Prof. Dr. Manfred Hülsken-Giesler from the accompanying project BeBeRobot. Both answer questions about the opportunities digitization offers for care, where its challenges lie, and what we should think of care robots. You can watch the complete episode here.

02.2022: Future discussions on robotics in nursing as video

If you missed the virtual panel discussion from the University of Göttingen from their series “Future Discussions” on the topic “Robotics in Care. Upvaluation or devaluation of care work”, you can watch it here at any time. The panel included Prof. Dr. Andreas Hein, Director of the Department of Health Services Research and Professor of Assistance Systems and Medical Technology at the University of Oldenburg, Prof. Dr. Martina Hasseler, Professor of Clinical Nursing at the Faculty of Healthcare at the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences at the Wolfsburg Campus, and Dr. Andreas Bischof, a staff member at the Chair of Media Informatics at Chemnitz University of Technology, who is investigating the ethical dimensions of technical assistance systems in care contexts.

11.2021: German Caritas Association/BeBeRobot

Since 16 November 2021, the German Caritas Association, based in Freiburg im Breisgau, has a new president. Ms Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa replaces the previous President Peter Neher, who did not reapply for the office after an 18-year term. This makes Ms Welskop-Deffaa the first woman in the almost 125-year history at the head of the German Caritas Association with its almost 700,000 employees and hundreds of thousands of volunteers. For her, the digital transformation is a matter close to her heart: getting actively involved in digital development projects and making it clear that related ethical issues do not have to be dealt with downstream. Taking a close look at digital opportunities for participation and working out mechanisms of digitalisation that lead to the exclusion of people and that can improve opportunities for participation. These and other tasks have already been taken on by the German Caritas Association – for the benefit of the poor and excluded – within the framework of its digital strategy and will be taken on more intensively in the future. The cooperation of the German Caritas Association in the scientific accompanying project BeBeRobot is a building block in this.

11.2021: BMBF presents results profiles

With the format of the so-called “results profiles”, the BMBF presents current and innovative research results of the research programme “Together through Innovation” in multimedia form. The profiles briefly and concisely summarise the most important findings of the respective projects and, with an outlook on the future, point out remaining challenges for research and the future use of the interactive solution in practice. The results profiles can be viewed at https://www.interaktive-technologien.de/service/ergebnissteckbriefe

10.2021: Young people ready to care for relatives – DAK publishes care report

Two out of three young people (68 percent) can imagine caring for relatives. This is the result of the current DAK-Gesundheit care report. For the report, researchers under the direction of Professor Thomas Klie from the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg examined the situation of young carers in Germany. In addition to qualitative interviews, the core of the care report is a comprehensive survey by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research in the age group of 16 to 39-year-olds. According to the survey, young women (71 percent) are more likely to imagine caring for relatives than young men (66 percent). The report is available at https://www.dak.de/dak/download/report-2501938.pdf