Introduction: On the concept of cross-European technology assessment

Abstract

Nielsen and Klüver introduce the concept of cross-European technology assessment developed in the PACITA project, the layers of which are unfolded in the remaining chapters of this book. As a supplement to existing European institutions, cross-European technology assessment is a vision of a networked support system for national parliaments supplying process-support for knowledge-based and participatory policy making. As well as discussing the possible role of such a support system within existing European frameworks of policy formation, Nielsen and Klüver propose the necessity of capacity building modelled on the concept of cross-European technology assessment as a means to counterbalance trends towards European centralization in the face of grand societal challenges.