A new monitoring process of future topics for innovation and technological analysis: informing Germanys’ innovation policy

Abstract

Technology assessment (TA) is defined as problem-oriented transdisciplinary research that aims at working out solutions for societal problems. It provides advice to those in politics, science and wider society on issues related to research, technology and innovation. There is widespread agreement that TA should start at an early phase in order to contribute to responsible strategic technology development. If we assume limited resources, the question remained, however, how priority setting of TA should be organised. The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research launched a research project to answer this question based on their funding strategy. In this paper, we propose an approach to determine when TA should be conducted in a given situation, and which methodological approach of TA is most promising: using a ‘coarse radar’, several topics were identified in a two-pronged search approach. Then relevant topics were selected with the help of experts and the decision-making body itself. Finally, using a ‘fine radar’, detailed problem analyses of the prioritised topics were made to present concrete suggestions for funding by the BMBF (pre-projects). The paper evaluates briefly the methodology and discusses initial findings of the method evaluation process.