The brand-new TA portal was launched on the occasion of the annual meeting of the council of the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (EPTA) network on 22 October 2012. The core is a database of TA-related publications and projects together with basic information about TA facilities and experts in Europe.

Information platform and interface

The online portal is intended to help make TA known in even more countries of Europe. It permits access to essential information on TA facilities, their experts, publications and projects. In the future, it is also planned to include a diary with TA events, a virtual library and an open access full-text server. Interested nonscientists will in the near future be able to exchange views in the TA forum.

The PACITA project

The PACITA project is a consortium of a number of European TA institutions. Together, they intend to develop concepts and methods to improve the role of TA as a mediator between science, society and politics. The experience with the project is also intended to serve as a starting point in countries in which TA has not as yet gained a foothold.

The portal currently contains mainly information from the organisations involved in PACITA. If all goes according to plan, however, this will soon change. The intention is to involve further institutions and thus create a central access point to the world of TA.