Applying Value Sensitive Design to Fundamental and Abstract Design Objects: The Case of Synthetic Cell Research

Value Sensitive Design (VSD) offers a framework for integrating societal values into technological development; yet, its application in fundamental technology research remains limited. This gap is not incidental: VSD assumes a relatively stable design object, with identifiable features, users, and bounded design choices. Synthetic cell (SC) research satisfies none of these conditions. Instead, it concerns an abstract and evolving artefact, delineated by contested and non-exhaustive criteria. This instability is constitutive of the research itself, navigated through experimental successes and emerging research trajectories rather than deliberate design choices.
Drawing on our experience within SC research, we identify three challenges in applying VSD to research that is simultaneously discovery- and application-oriented, and propose a reorientation of VSD methods suited to such contexts. 

First, when an object is undefined, so too are the values at stake. Multiple research trajectories may proceed simultaneously, making ethical assessment dependent on shifting and sometimes contradictory assumptions.
Second, researchers occupy a dual position as designers and end users, collapsing VSD’s stakeholder distinctions and concentrating agency within an expert group unrepresentative of downstream affected publics.
Third, because much of the research is dual-use and may never contribute towards the final artefact, the scope of ethical assessment and the timing of meaningful intervention are difficult to situate.

We therefore propose object conceptualization as a preliminary stage of VSD: a process involving sustained interaction with researchers to map relevant research trajectories and enabling technologies, clarify provisional success criteria, and determine which ethical questions are tractable at specific timepoints.

This preliminary stage establishes the conditions under which the design object becomes ethically assessable within VSD. Without such groundwork, VSD risks serving as retrospective legitimization rather than genuine ethical intervention.

Part of panel The limits and opportunities of collaboration: finding our role as SSH researchers in transdisciplinary consortia - part 2