The conference, which was organised in the framework of the project “Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment” (PACITA), took place at the National Technical Library from March 13 to 15. It sought to address all groups of actors in science and policy studies: policy makers in legislation and administration, civil society organisations, academics and TA practitioners.
“Knowledge broker” for policy-makers
In his keynote, Wiebe Bijker (NL) stressed the central role of TA in techno-political decision-making. Its aim to foster the cooperation between science, politics and citizens would help set the course for positive future developments.
ITA director Michael Nentwich, who traveled to Prague together with a delegation of ITA experts, seconds this notion: “Parliamentary technology assessment (PTA) aims at ensuring a stream of high-quality knowledge in the political decision-making processes on innovation. Put simply, it can act as a “knowledge broker” between scientists and policy makers.”
Establishment of TA in Europe
Nentwich continues to stress the importance of a global meeting in Europe: „This year’s European TA conference was a huge success. We were not only able to attract representatives from countries from all over the world, ie US, Mexico, Brasil, Japan or South Korea. Also present were representatives from European countries were TA is still hardly used as a tool for decision-making.”
Thematic sessions covered topic such as Energy Transition, Climate Change, Social Media, Sustainable Development and Health Care and Ageing Society. Aside from talks and discussions there were participatory working groups as well as “twitter-friendly sessions”.
Getting parliaments involved
PACITA is a four-year project aimed at addressing the challenges of policy-making in respect to science and technology issues. Practices used involve a range of methods of cross-disciplinary expert studies, stakeholder involvement, citizen consultation and parliamentary discourse.
20.03.2013
Denise Riedlinger