With a total of 152 media contributions, the topics and projects of experts of the Institute for Technology Assessment were featured twice as often in the Austrian media landscape in 2016 as in the previous year. Data protection and privacy were ongoing central themes.

Prominent projects of the first half-year include NERRI and the large participation project PROSO. Project leader Helge Torgersen investigated the current status on the subject of brain doping while Alexander Bogner, Daniela Fuchs and Anja Bauer examined the question of how civil society can sensibly be integrated in research policy decisions.

With the autumn season came questions regarding autonomous vehicles, especially in regard to data protection. The results of this project were summarized by Jaro Krieger-Lamina. Media attention was sparked by the EPTA conference, held at the Austrian Parliament at the end of October, with a discourse on policy advice having been triggered before the event.