Comparative Table of Parliamentary TA Institutions

Topics

CATALONIA - THE ADVISORY BOARD OF THE PARLIAMENT OF CATALONIA FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Generally speaking, the material working fields of CAPCIT are as follows:

Since its inception, CAPCIT has worked on the following areas:

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs or transgenic)

A popular legislative initiative was presented in the Parliament of Catalonia which sought to ban genetically modified crops. CAPCIT decided to call for three reports on the topic from various scientific institutions represented on CAPCIT prior to discussing the issue in the plenary session of the Parliament of Catalonia.

Human papillomaviruses

Proposals had been submitted in the Parliament of Catalonia to restrict vaccinations for this virus and more information was sought on the issue before making a decision.

Nanotechnology

In this case the aim was to turn to good account the work being conducted by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation and said foundation was asked to present its work to CAPCIT.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS ASSESSMENT

The work of STOA is focused on the five thematic priority areas:

1. Eco-efficient transport and modern energy solutions;
2. Sustainable management of natural resources;
3. Potentials and challenges of the Internet;
4. Health and new technologies in the life sciences;
5. Science policy, communication and global networking.

Recent projects

Projects were recently completed on the following subjects:

Recent workshops

Apart from workshops organised in the context of projects, STOA has recently organised workshops on such subjects as the following:

FINLAND - THE COMMITTEE FOR THE FUTURE

In autumn 2011 the Committee for the Future held a number of hearings with tens of experts representing various sub-sectors of society. Based on these hearings, the Committee chose, at this stage, four areas of study for itself during the parliamentary term 2011–2014:

The themes are chosen from the Committee’s interests, but also to create a readiness to respond to the Government’s report on the future (The Finnish sustainable development growth model in a changing world).

In addition, the Committee has been making preparations to revamp its work methods, i.e. has looked closely at how projects are implemented and how the effectiveness of activities is ensured. This theme was addressed from several different perspectives in autumn 2011: from the perspectives of direct democracy, social media and crowdsourcing, with a view to strengthening the formulation of the Parliament’s futures-oriented policies as well as also from the perspective of rationalising the Committee’s own work.

These objectives are being promoted by means of three themes that cut across several dimensions:

FRANCE - OFFICE PARLEMENTAIRE D´EVALUATION DES CHOIX SCIENTIFIQUES ET TECHNOLOGIQUES 

RECENT REPORTS

PUBLIC HEARINGS

GERMANY - OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT AT THE GERMAN BUNDESTAG 

The topics on which TAB conducts assessments comprise a broad range of actual scientific and technological issues with high relevance for politics. One focal point lies on the field of environment and health, examples are reports on "Medicines for Africa", and "Geoengineering". Another focus is on the dynamic and controversial issue of bio- and gene technology. To this, TAB submitted reports such as "Gene Doping", "Transgenic Seeds in Developing Countries". Examples for projects in the field of resources and energy are "Renewable Energy Sources to Secure the Base Load in Electricity Supply", "Energy Storage Technologies", "Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage".

Under the umbrella of technology, society and innovation, TAB studies are focused on identifying potential areas of innovation as well as the strengths and weaknesses of Germany´s innovation system. Furthermore, another focus of these studies are the challenges of research, education, and innovation policies.

SELECTED RECENT AND ONGOING PROJECTS

GREECE - GREEK PERMANENT COMMITTEE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT 

A selection of topics in which the Committee was engaged recently:

THE NETHERLANDS -
    RATHENAU INSTITUUT

The Work Programme 2013-2014 (www.rathenau.org) describes the Rathenau Instituut´s themes and subthemes. The main themes are elaborated upon in projects. Examples are:

The resilience of knowlegde infrastructure

Societal Permit of science and technology

innovation 2020

How are we to control our position of competing economies?

Hunger for raw materials in broader perspective

Shifting healthcare

big data, large consequences

NORWAY - THE NORWEGIAN BOARD OF TECHNOLOGY 

Our projects cover a broad range of topics, but currently the focus is on openness and security, innovation in the welfare state and sustainable technology. We are also partners in international, EU-funded projects that cover the same topics.

Selected recent projects are:

SWEDEN - THE PARLIAMENTARY EVALUATION AND RESEARCH UNIT 

The topics have covered different subjects since 2007, many of which have a bearing on the environment and sustainable development. Recent assignments have focused mainly on health issues.

SWITZERLAND - SWISS FOUNDATION FOR TECHNOLOGY ASSESMENT 

In the past few years TA-SWISS has focused on the following subjects:

Biotechnology and medicine:

Mobility, energy, climate:

Information society:

Nanotechnologies:

Social and cultural TA:

Indicators – emergence and use in politics

As of 2017 TA-SWISS is treating or initializing the following topics:

TA-SWISS is also actively involved in international projects such as "Parliaments an civil society in technology assessment" (PACITA) and "surveillance, privacy and security" (SurPRISE), a large scale participatory assessment of criteria and factors determining acceptability and acceptance of security technologies in Europe.

UNITED KINGDOM - THE PARLIAMENTARY OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 

POST groups its work activities into six main clusters, listed below with example projects. Many of the subjects of POST´s attention fall into more than one of these categories.

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND HEALTH

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

PHYSICAL SCIENCES, ENGINEERING AND IT

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPMENT

Also falling within this cluster is a special major project that POST has been running since 2007 concerned with science and technology capacity building in African parliaments, especially the parliament of Uganda. Much of this work has been in collaboration with the UK´s Royal Society. Further details are on POST´s web site. The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission has also provided fellowships to enable African parliamentary staff to spend three months with POST and the Houses of Parliament.

SCIENCE POLICY

AUSTRIA - THE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT 

The current medium-term research programme 2012-2014 defines three major research areas, namely the information society, governance of technology controversies, and technology and sustainability. Besides its thematic research areas, ITA focuses on cross-cutting issues, e.g. monitoring and horizon scanning activities as well as critical reflection on and further development of TA methods.

In the "Information society" area, ITA addresses three topics. E-governance deals with the potential of ICT in the field of the state and its effects. The analyses initially concentrated on the launch of electronic administration (e-government) and currently focus on the potential and obstacles of online political participation, which can be ascribed to the overall concept of "electronic democracy". In the topic "Privacy" the network of relationships between technologies, fundamental rights and social/political consequences is analysed as a basis for deriving options for action. The analysis takes the effects of new and future ICT on the private sphere as its starting point and core. In a broader perspective, however, the ITA also addresses other fields of technology and other basic rights affected. In the third subtopic, "Networked environments", the ITA deals in particular with the social consequences of pervasive computing and ambient intelligence and with the effect of the use of new media on geographical and social structures and modes of work in science, most recently specifically in connection with Web 2.0 (cyber science).

The field of "Governance of technology controversies" studies controversies about new technologies and their significance for the governance process. Technology controversies have left deep traces in modern society. Disputes concern not only specific applications (such as in agro-biotechnology) but also what and how research and development are to be pursued (for instance with respect to stem cell research). Current topics in this field are nanotechnology and synthetic and system biology.

In the field of "Technology and sustainability", against the background of the social discussion concerning concrete problems such as climate change or resources shortages and the problems these give rise to, the ITA examines and evaluates the possible consequences of technology, and investigates the conditions under which technology can make a contribution to sustainable development. Current projects address energy technologies in particular.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE - THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE 

The Assembly has always paid attention to science and technology and its work also covers topical and emerging issues in the field of science, scientific research, new technologies and their impact on sustainable development and society. These are dealt with by different Assembly committees.

The specific terms of reference of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media includes the task of maintaining working relations with the European Science Foundation and the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment Network. The committee deals with science and scientific research and the impact of scientific and technological development on society. The main focus of its work has been and remains the ethical principles and standards that should govern scientific research and the use of new technologies.

A General Rapporteur on Science and Technology Impact Assessment is appointed among the committee´s members with the following main tasks: to follow activities of other Assembly committees and liaise with rapporteurs dealing with scientific and technological matters from other perspectives such as their social, economic, health and environmental impact; to follow activities and maintain working relations with national parliaments as well as with relevant international, intergovernmental, inter-parliamentary or other organisations including the EPTA Network; and to report periodically back to the committee on the information collected and the action taken.

The Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development deals with health protection and the prevention of health risks; biomedicine, the impact on the environment/ecosystem of sectoral policies such as transport, energy, water management, and of new technologies such as nanotechnologies or technologies based on electromagnetic waves.

Although the Assembly does not directly implement technology assessment activities, its work in the field of science and technology is founded on the precautionary principle and seeks to promote the highest ethical principles and firm standards of transparency, independence and credibility in assessment, in order to guarantee human dignity and fundamental rights.

SELECTION OF RELEVANT DOCUMENTS ADOPTED BY THE ASSEMBLY

RECOMMENDATIONS

RESOLUTIONS

OPINIONS

ONGOING REPORTS

The ethics of science (Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media)
Nanotechnologies (Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development)

TARGET GROUPS

As for all the work of the Assembly, the key target groups are: Of course, all the Assembly reports are also intended to reach European citizens, in order to raise awareness and gain their support for policy proposals and guidelines addressed to state authorities.

POLAND - BUREAU OF RESEARCH 

Most TA work undertaken by BAS in recent years have been done in the following areas:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 

The range of topics GAO could potentially address for the Congress is quite broad-requests for GAO work can come from any of the 41 active committees and 181 sub-committees within the U.S. Congress which reflect the full range of activities of the U.S. Government. Therefore GAO could be asked to conduct technology assessment work on topics ranging from energy and climate change, biomedical and health, national and homeland security, transportation and infrastructure, and information security concerns, among others.

To date, GAO technology assessments have addressed topics ranging from biometrics to explosives detection to climate engineering. A full list of publicly releasable technology assessment conducted by GAO can be found at www.gao.gov/browse/collection/Technology_Assessment

EPTA ITA
(c) EPTA, provided by ITA; version 01/2017