The project "Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment" (PACITA) is funded under the European Commission's FP7 Mobilisation and Mutual Learning Action Plan. The project aims at distributing capacity and enhancing the institutional foundations for knowledge-based policy-making on issues involving science, technology and innovation, mainly based upon the practices in Parliamentary Technology Assessment (PTA).
PTA supports the processes of democratic policy-making on issues involving science, technology and innovation, by providing comprehensive insight into knowledge on opportunities and consequences, by facilitating democratic processes of debate and clarification, and by formulating policy options.
- document these practices,
- describe schemes for using them nationally and at European level,
- establish a set of training schemes for users and practitioners,
- establish a Web Portal to European TA expertise
- create a debate on such practices in countries, which do not have them formally established,
- involve experts, societal actors and politicians in European debates on these practices,
- organise three large example-projects on expert-based praxis, stakeholder involvement and citizen consultation,
- support this with a strong dissemination strategy towards policy-makers, the scientific community, media - notably in countries without a developed TA infrastructure
The consortium has 15 partners from national/regional parliamentary offices for science and technology; science academies; research institutions; universities and civil society organisations.
Project website: PACITA
