European Technology Assessment Group

The European Technology Assessment Group (ETAG ) is a cooperative network of research institutions that carry out studies of technology assessment for the European Parliament field.

History and Objectives

Since October 2005, advises a group of European research institutions that are active in the technology assessment field ( TA), the European Parliament to social, environmental and economic aspects of new technologies and scientific developments, the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis ( ITAS ) at the Karlsruhe Institute of technology (KIT) in Germany is leading the consortium.

Like many other parliaments in Europe has also created the European Parliament at the end of the 1980s, a device for science-based advice on complex social, environmental and economic consequences of modern technology and research. At the European Parliament of this advisory and consultation process ( Scientific Technology Options Assessment ) organized by the STOA Committee, a Parlamentsgermium, which consists of 15 members, representing the various parliamentary committees. Given the increasing importance of European research and technology policy, the European Parliament has decided that the activities of STOA through a permanent collaboration with a group of devices are supported with appropriate expertise in technology assessment field.

From May 2009 for a second period of three years, the European Technology Assessment Group (ETAG ) TA studies leads to the STOA Committee through. The focus of the activities of ETAG for Parliament is on studies in the following fields: transport, ICT and the information society, nanotechnology, life sciences, and quality of life as well as agriculture, food and biotechnology. The new tender of the STOA Secretariat for the award of future TA studies for the European Parliament is now running and is not decided yet.

Partner

Besides the fact that they are respectively the leading institutions of technology assessment in their countries, the group members have years of experience in the area of ​​policy advice for parliamentary bodies and most are members of the EPTA network. ETAG consists of the following organizations:

  • Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis ( ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT ), which operates the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag
  • Danish Technology Council (DBT ), which advises the Danish Parliament
  • Rathenau Instituut, which advises the Dutch Parliament
  • ( ( Institute Society and Technology (IST) ), the TA- establishment of the Flemish Parliament, by the end of 2012 was a member, but has been resolved)
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ( ISI), which performs jointly with the ITAS TA studies for the German Parliament
  • Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation ( FCRI ), provides scientific advice to the Parliament of Catalonia
  • Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA ) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
  • Belongs Technology Centre AS CR, a device that TA operates and the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts

Projects

The scientific responsibility for any TA study, which is aligned to the needs of the European Parliament, is one of the partner organizations. ITAS is responsible for the administration and communication with the European Parliament and coordinates the activities of ETAG, as well as the cooperation of the group with the other network of TA units in Europe. The work program includes studies on a broad topic from different policy areas such as Research & development, environmental issues, health and energy. Project topics are, or were, for example: convergent technologies; antibiotic resistance; Galileo; sustainable energy supply; Nanotechnology and chemical substitution; Options for road and air transport; Cancer therapy; RFID and identity management; copyright; global health; future energy systems in Europe; Technology and the labor market; Tunnel safety; Animal welfare; Human Enhancement; IcT and energy efficiency; agricultural technologies for developing countries.

The studies carried out ETAG for STOA, STOA are available on the internet pages.

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