Research

Merits and Acquired Grants

  • Chairperson, UN Universal Safeguards for Digital Public Infrastructure Working Group, United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
  • Friedrich Schiedel Fellowship for Treasure Hunt: Towards an Evidence-Based Translational Design Framework for Human-Centered Innovation (T:INTERFACE), April 2025 – May 2026
  • Best Project Week Award for the Critical Making course, Technical University of Munich, 2025
  • TUM Excellence funding for the Critical Making course and accompanying research, April 2025 – May 2026
  • Berlin University Alliance Funding – Flexible Travel Grant for Cooperations in the Global South, July 2023
  • EU-SwafS Horizon 2020 grant for Critical Making: RRI Principles in the Maker Community (2021-2023)
  • Berlin University Alliance funding for Infrastructuring in Grassroots Innovation (2020)
  • DAAD-funded field research on Indonesian critical making and grassroots innovation movements between November 2019 – July 2020.

Lectures and workshops

Participatory Design. Summer semesters 2024 and 2025, Technical University of Munich.

Critical Making: Hacking Innovation Bias. Summer and winter semesters 2018-2025, Technical University of Berlin in cooperation with Fraunhofer Institute AOI, TechnologieStiftung Berlin and Berlin University Alliance.

Designing Public Policy. Summer semesters 2024 and 2025, Technical University of Munich, in collaboration with the TUM School of Social Sciences.

Researching Critical Making, Grassroots Innovation and Postcolonial Computing. Summer semester 2022, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

Knowledge Production with Makers: Situatedness, Infrastructuring, and Criticality – 3 Emerging Research Topics. Citizen Science Social School: Social Dimensions in Citizen Science. Universitat de Barcelona. Winter Semester 2021/2022.

Critical Technical Practice in Social Innovation – Cases from the Global South. Summer Semester 2020/2021, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Masterstudiengang Soziale Innovation.

Social Innovation in Critical Technical Practice in Indonesia. Winter Semester 2020/2021, hybrid plattform: Global Makerspaces – Critical Perspectives, Positions and Practices. University of Arts and Technical University of Berlin.

The Future of Technology. Winter semester 2018/19, Technical University of Berlin.

Changes in Digital Technologies and Information Technology. Winter semester 2018/19, Technical University, Berlin.

Vocational Study Projects for K-12 Students. Summer semester 2017/18, Technical University, Berlin.

Social Business Model Canvas for Social-Digital Entrepreneurs. 2017, Berlin and Hungary, Social-Digital Innovation Incubator.

Due Diligence Before Launching a Social-Digital Idea. 2017, Berlin and Hungary, Social-Digital Innovation Barcamps.

Creative Industries: Getting Started with Social Innovation. Winter semester 2015/16, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.

Monograph

Sipos, R. (2025): Critical Technical Practice in Grassroots Innovation. Springer Nature (forthcoming)

Publications

Sipos, R. (2026): Agency on the Peripheries: Case Studies of Grassroots Innovation and Intrinsic Design in the Global South. In: Science, Technology, and Society, Sage (forthcoming)

Sipos, R., Goh, G.M., Hutton, S. (2026): Measuring Contribution to Development: Impact Indicators for African Makerspaces. In: Development Studies Research, Taylor & Francis (forthcoming)

Striebing, C., Bertram, H., Büssers, J., Clausnitzer, C., Sipos, R. (2026): From Awareness to Action: A Three-Phase Model for Gender-Sensitive STEM teaching. In: Nature Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (forthcoming)

Thoring, K., Liu, S., Dreyer, S., & Sipos, R. (2026). Speculens: AI-Augmented Mixed Reality for Imaginative Knowledge Creation and Critical Futures Discourse. In Proceedings of the 59th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (forthcoming)

Sipos, R. (2025): Using Generative AI to Grapple with the Not-Yet-Known: A Case Study on the Critical Participatory Co-Design Method. In: 12th International Conference on Communities & Technologies, C&T, July 2025, Siegen, Germany. https://doi.org/10.1145/3742800.3742844

Sipos, R. (2025): The Critical Participatory Co-Design Method: Exploiting Biases in Generative AI to Grapple with Digital Futures. In: Empowering People in Online Spaces: Democracy and Well-Being in Digital Societies, Weizenbaum Conference 2025 Proceedings #05, 43-48. DOI 10.34669/WI.WP/5 

Sipos, R., Zuo, A., Maciel, N.D., Mou, P., Kuijpers, M., Soumo, E.A., Kiss, D., Ceccon, A. (2025): Welcome to Planet B: Co-Designing Multidisciplinary Research Questions to Uncover Super Wicked Problems. In: Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research. 38(1) https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2024.2447849

Sipos, R., Kutschera, A., & Klose, J. (2025). Critical making workshops: Sparking meta-discussions for critical thinking in vocational education. Critical Education, 16(1), 49-70. https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v16i1.186863

Pfeifer, M., Sipos, R., Oelsch, A. (2024): Navigating Future Skills: The FOUNDING LAB Experience in Shaping the University of the Future. In: Proceedings of the STS Conference Graz, 6-8 May 2024, Graz, Austria. Eds: Getzinger, G., Jahrbacher, M., Prunc, R.L. Series: Science, Technology and Society online. ISBN: 978-3-99161-033-5

Sipos, R. (2023): Understanding and Scaling Distributed Manufacturing. In: Appropriate Technology Magazine, December 2023, Volume 50, Number 4

Sipos, R.: Alternative Framings of Critical Making. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8116573

Harriman Eskandar, G. and Sipos, R (2023): [STUDY] Community Networks: A Place-Based Approach for Sustainability/ インドネシアの「竹の電波塔」に見る、土着のインフラデザイン in Circular Design Praxis, no. 4

Lowe, A., Sipos, R., Wenzelmann, V., Fonseca, F. (2023): A Framework for Scaling Distributed Manufacturing in the Global South. Manufacturing Change for the FCDO UK. London, United Kingdom.

Sipos, R., Åkerman, M. (2023): Introducing the Critical Making Responsibility Framework for Analyzing Responsible Innovation Processes in Grassroots Practices. In: Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, Vol. 36, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2023.2195583

Sipos, R. Åkerman, M., Saari, H., Kieslinger, B. (2022): Critical Making Responsibility Framework. Extending an Academic Proposal to Support Reflexivity in Maker Communities. FAB17: Proceedings of the MIT FAB17 Fab Fest Bali Academic Conference. This submission received “Best Paper Award”.

Sipos, R., Åkerman, M. (2022): Critical Making Case Actions and Methodologies. A Methodological Toolbox, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5948298

Sipos, R., Wenzelmann, V. (2021): Regional Good Practices: Accelerating Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation – Africa Region. A report written for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Geneva. ISBN 978-92-61-33841-1

Saari, H., Åkerman, M., Kieslinger, B., Myllyoja, J., Sipos, R. (2021): How Open Is the Maker Movement? Integrative Literature Review of the Openness Practices in the Global Maker Movement. Sustainability 2021, 13, 13559. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413559

Sipos, R. Åkerman, M., Wenzelmann, V. (2021): Critical Making Baseline: Towards a Critical Making Responsibility Framework, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6907490

Sipos, R. (2021): Interview mit Garnet Hertz. In: Handbook Fab Labs: Einrichtung, Finanzierung, Betrieb, Forschung & Lehre. Bombini Verlag, Bonn. ISBN 978-3-946496-26-7

Sipos, R.; Wenzelmann, V. (2021): Critical Making with and For Communities: Community-Driven Critical Making Grounded in Practitioners’ Perspectives on Definition and Praxis. C&T’21: proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Communities & Technologies – Wicked Problems in the Age of Tech, Seattle, USA, June 2021. https://doi.org/10.1145/3461564.3461572 

Sipos, R., Kieslinger, B., Stilz, M. (2021): Critical Making Consortium: Studying Responsible Research and Innovation Principles in the Maker Community. Proceedings of the Objectif Sciences International 12th Geneva Forum at United Nations Conference, 2020.

Sipos, R., Franzl, K. (2020): Tracing the History of DIY and Maker Culture in Germany. In: Digital Culture and Society special issue on Alternative Histories in DIY Cultures and Maker Utopias.

Sipos, R., Wenzelmann V.; Critical Making with and for Communities. C&T ’19: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Communities & Technologies – Transforming Communities, June 2019, Pages 323–330, https://doi.org/10.1145/3328320.3328410

Sipos, R., Chinoy, S., Ruiz, R.: The Critical Making Movement. How Using Critical Thinking in Technological Practice can Make a Difference. In 35C3 – Refreshing Memories. Chaos Computer Club e.V., ISBN 978-3-947720-31-6, Ach je Verlag, Berlin. 2019.

Sipos, R.: Life Long Learning: Protection from the Negative Effects of Industry 4.0  (Ami megvéd az Ipar 4.0 negatív hatásaival szemben: tanulás). Budapest, Hungary. Elektronet, 2018/5.

Sipos, R.: Digital Innovation Made in Africa For Sustainable and Inclusive Development. GIZ. Berlin/Bonn, Germany. 1st Edition, November 2017.

Sipos, R.: Better, Faster: About the 150 Years Old ITU’s Conference in Budapest (Jobbat, gyorsabban: A 150 éves ITU budapesti konferenciájáról). Budapest, Ungarn. Elektronet, 2015/7.

Sipos, R.: Time for Ideas. ITU News, Geneva, Switzerland, 2013/4.

Peer Reviewer

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Springer Nature

Environmental Science and Policy, Elsevier

Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, Taylor and Francis

Journal for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation, fteval

Frontiers in Human Dynamics 

Memberships and Conference Program Committees

Chair, Posters and Demos, International Conference on Communities and Technologies C&T2025

Member, Association of Internet Researchers, AoIR

Member, The Design Society, DS

Program Committee Member, International Conference on Communities and Technologies C&T 2023