Building community - Or why we need an ongoing conference platform for TA

Abstract

As a background for current outlooks towards strengthening the technology assessment (TA) community, Scherz et al. give a historical overview of efforts to establish international fora for communication among professionals and researchers in TA. Against this background, the article conveys experiences from the first two bi-annual TA conferences, arranged in the context of the PACITA project. The authors describe experiences of mutual learning across national boundaries and communicate a renewed understanding of the necessity for supporting TA capacities at the national level through professional community building. Ultimately, Scherz et al. argue that a European TA platform is necessary for establishing a common language for TA and for supporting the spread of TA across borders.