About ECLT > Inauguration
December 3, 2004
Formal Inauguration of PACE European Center of Living Technology (ECLT)
 ECLT Palazzo Giovannelli, Venice - Italy
- Press Release -

Living systems are the focus of the new European Center for Living Technology. The Center's research in living technology aims to harness the distinctive useful properties of living systems. These properties include autonomy, robustness, sensitivity, adaptation, ongoing creativity, modular structuring, integrated design, a unification of physical and symbolic descriptions, and collective intelligence. The technology will be realized on a broad spectrum of platforms, from molecules to machines to human organizations. Experiment, simulation and theory will be used together to enable an integrated, multi-level, multi-disciplinary approach to exploit new social and technological opportunities. The Center will also proactively foster informed public discussion of the novel social, safety and ethical issues raised by Living Technology. Studiare la vita in tutte le sue manifestazioni e' l'obiettivo del nuovo European Center for Living Technology. Il centro si propone di promuovere la ricerca sulle proprieta' basilari dei sistemi viventi, quali l'autonomia, la robustezza, la sensibilita', la capacita' di adattamento, l'innovazione continua, l'assetto modulare, la struttura integrata, la compresenza di descrizioni fisiche e simboliche, l' emergenza di nuove proprieta' sistemiche. La tecnologia sara' realizzata su un ampio spettro di piattaforme, dalle molecole alle macchine alle organizzazioni umane. Teoria, esperimenti e simulazioni coopereranno per costruire un approccio integrato e multidisciplinare, con lo scopo di sviluppare nuove opportunit' sociali e tecnologiche. Il centro si propone anche di diventare un forum di discussione e elaborazione di tematiche sociali e etiche inerenti le scienze della vita.


Founding Institutions:

  • Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
  • University Ca' Foscari Venice, Italy
  • University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Chalmers Tekniska Hogskola AB, Sweden
  • Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
  • University of Zurich, Switzerland
  • Vilnius University - Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Lithuania
  • Telecom Italia Learning Services, Italy
  • ProtoLife S.r.l., Italy
  • University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  • Dublin City University, Ireland
  • Reed College, USA


Founding external participants:

  • Comune di Venezia
  • Los Alamos National Laboratories, USA
  • Argonne National Laboratories, USA


Initial funding:

    European project "Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution" (PACE) n. 0022035

    Sixth Framework Programme
    Information Society Technology
    Future Emergent Technologies