Technology assessment and foresight can make a significant contribution to innovative processes. They point out that in addition to technical and economic aspects, social and societal impacts always play a role when it comes to the well-being of us all.

NanoTrust selected as a global example for successful regulation

More than a decade ago, the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences started the NanoTrust project, which has since then evolved into an example of successful risk management in nanotechnologies. In the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Paper "Technology Assessment for Emerging Technology", Nanotrust is cited as a successful application of "Safe and Sustainable Design" together with examples from e.g. Portugal, the Netherlands, the USA or Japan.

"An important driver for the project was the idea of building a network of experts capable of producing independent and robust information on EHS issues and potential risks of nanomaterials and other nanotechnologies," project collaborators Anna Pavlicek and Gloria Rose emphasize. Project leader André Gazsó adds, "Scientific evidence alone is not sufficient to capture the wide-ranging impacts of innovations. NanoTrust’s role is facilitating exchange between research, policy and other stakeholders, processing existing knowledge and bringing the discussion of safety-related issues to the forefront. In this way, we contribute to the safe and sustainable development of technologies."

And what about citizens engagement?

ITA human ecologist Ulrike Bechtold was interviewed for the OECD report "Engaging citizens in innovation policy": she designed a presentation at the OECD-CSTP Workshop on Societal Engagement (Paris, March 2023) and spoke with the authors at this event. Her presentation focused on framing and possible rationales for societal engagement in science, technology, and innovation. Specifically, Bechtold talked about various examples of citizen participation on the topic of climate change and explained how public and political interest in this has changed in Austria in recent years.