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Munich Personal RePEc Archive
Recent Experiences and Emerging
Cooperation Schemes on TA and
Education: An Insight into Cases in
Portugal and Germany
Moniz, Antonio and Grunwald, Armin
IET, UNL-FCT, KIT-Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,
ITAS-FZK, FZK-ITAS
November 2009
Online at http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/19519/
MPRA Paper No. 19519, posted 22. December 2009 / 10:40

SCHWERPUNKT
Technikfolgenabschätzung – Theorie und Praxis 18. Jg., Heft 3, Dezember 2009 Seite 17
Recent Experiences and
Emerging Cooperation
Schemes on TA and Education
An Insight into Cases in Portugal
and Germany
by António B. Moniz, Universidade Nova de
Lisboa, and Armin Grunwald, ITAS
At the beginning of the 21st century there
are new expectations and challenges to-
wards Technology Assessment (TA).
Among these there is a new awareness on
TA issues in education, in particular at uni-
versities. While TA was mainly an activity at
extra-universitarian research institutions for
a long time now there are new develop-
ments and initiative towards integrating TA
issues in university courses. We will first
give an insight into the international devel-
opment. Secondly we will focus on the “TA
and education” landscape in Germany and
Portugal in more detail, followed by a de-
scription of new and emerging forms of
cooperation between Portugal and Germany
in this field which might serve as a model or
an example for further cooperation between
other partners.
1 Current developments in the field of TA
In the past decade, many things have changed
in TA and its societal environment. The fields
of interest moved from technology in a more
classical engineering sense to cross-cutting
“techno sciences”, ethical questions and inno-
vation issues entered the field, and some of the
technology conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s
lost relevance.
These changes have been reflected in the
concepts used. Classical TA regarded itself in
part as an early warning system for risks
caused by technology. This classical orienta-
tion is still present but has, however, now been
quite considerably broadened, understanding
TA as a contribution to technology governance
and innovation policy, particular in areas of
uncertain knowledge. In addition, TA is in-
creasingly involved in the development of a
deliberative democracy and a civil society,
mainly in the debates on technology-based
futures and visions (Grunwald 2007), and there
is renewed interest in social sciences and hu-
manities. New concepts such as ethical, legal
and social implications of technology (ELSI) or
environment – health – safety (EHS) studies
can be regarded as specifications of the basic
idea of TA to particular ends and purposes.
At the end of the Office of Technology
Assessment at the US Congress, upcoming new
challenges for TA and increasing needs for TA
were also expressed by Senator Kennedy1 who
still defended the programme of OTA in the
Senate: “In the years ahead, as we move into
the 21st century, there will be even greater need
to rely on OTA for impartial assessment of
technology-related policies. The world of sci-
ence and its impact on public policy are be-
coming more complex, not less. Technology is
central to every aspect of American life, from
biotechnology to law enforcement, from agri-
culture to education. It would be a serious mis-
take to limit our ability as a legislature to
evaluate and respond to the scientific and tech-
nological challenges facing Congress, the Ad-
ministration, and the Nation”.2
In Europe, the European Parliamentary
Technology Assessment (EPTA) partners advise
the national or regional parliaments on the pos-
sible social, economic and environmental impact
of new sciences and technologies, such as bio-
ethics and biotechnology, public health, envi-
ronment and energy, ICTs, and R&D policy.
They are European organisations which carry
out TA studies on behalf of parliaments. This
means also an increased involvement of political
structures in the impact analysis of technological
development or scientific options.
In fact, at the beginning of the 21st cen-
tury there are new expectations and challenges
towards TA. Usually TA does not have to deal
with the consequences of individual technolo-
gies, products or plants, but frequently with
complex (conflictual) situations between new
and emerging technologies, enabling technolo-
gies, innovation potentials, patterns of produc-
tion and cultural and political strategic deci-
sions. Expectations towards “responsible inno-
vation” (MASIS 2009) can be seen as a core to
which all of these research and assessment
branches contribute, setting out from different
starting points, using different perspectives,
and applying different TA methodologies. The