Kick-Off for BRIDGE
Robotics, law and ethics join for a green transition
Germany faces the challenge of combining climate and environmental goals with international competitiveness. Robots can help, but only if innovations are developed in a safe, responsible, and compliant manner. That is the goal of the new scientific support project BRIDGE.
Germany aims to become the leading market for intelligent and safe robotics in the environmental sector. To this end, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) has launched the Digital GreenTech initiative. This initiative addresses two of the most pressing issues of our time: the sustainable use of resources and the responsible development of intelligent technologies. Considerable obstacles persist between research results and practical application, including legal issues, ethical requirements, a lack of standards, and questions surrounding safe human–machine interaction. These challenges are slowing down innovation. This is precisely where the new BRIDGE project comes in. Starting in November 2025, BRIDGE will support funded robotics projects nationwide in transferring their research results into demanding environmental applications more quickly, safely, and responsibly. BRIDGE thus contributes directly to the Hightech Agenda Germany and forms a bridge between scientific excellence and industrial applicability.
The BRIDGE project: Law, ethics, and transfer interlinked
BRIDGE stands for the German equivalent of “Accompanying Project for Robotics, Information Law, Dissemination, Green Tech, and Ethics”. The funded Digital-GreenTech-projects are supported in three interrelated areas:
Enable & Support: Legal and ethical guidance, regular status seminars, and specialist workshops help ensure that project plans are developed in a secure and compliant manner. The accompanying research offers “points to consider” – practical checklists and guidelines for each phase of project development.
Analysis & Orientation: In-depth studies on product safety, liability, data protection, IT security, autonomy, and governance provide reliable, scientifically sound guidelines for the entire industry. The guidelines developed go beyond individual projects and create standards for the industry.
Transfer & Standards: Publications, digital dialogue formats, and target group-specific guidelines bring the findings directly to the professional community, standards committees, and standardization bodies. The aim is to ensure that best practices are implemented as quickly as possible in the respective industries.
The consortium
The consortium is led by the FZI Research Center for Information Technology, which contributes its extensive expertise in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and IT law. The funding project partner is the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW) at the University of Tübingen, which identifies the ethical dimensions and challenges of the projects and develops suitable proposals for their implementation. The DIZ | Digital Innovation Center GmbH is responsible for networking, scientific communication, and the systematic transfer of knowledge to the specialist community.
The ‘Digital GreenTech – Umwelttechnik trifft Robotik (Environmental Technology Meets Robotics)’ funding measure of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space is financing BRIDGE with approximately 750,000 euros over 36 months (November 1, 2025–October 31, 2028). The project supports 16 research projects of the Digital GreenTech initiative on their way to scalable, standard-compliant, and socially accepted solutions.
Further information on the BRIDGE accompanying research project can be found in the press release (in German) from DIZ | Digital Innovation Center GmbH
About the FZI
The FZI Research Center for Information Technology, headquartered in Karlsruhe with a branch office in Berlin, is a non-profit institution dedicated to research in information technology applications and technology transfer. It delivers the latest scientific findings in information technology to companies and public institutions. It qualifies individuals for academic and business careers, as well as for the leap into self-employment. Supervised by professors from various faculties, the research groups at the FZI develop interdisciplinary concepts, software, hardware, and system solutions for their clients and implement the solutions found as prototypes. The FZI House of Living Labs offers a distinctive research environment for applied research. The FZI is an innovation partner of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and a strategic partner of the German Informatics Society (GI).
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