The TA Manifesto

A common statement from the organizations involved in the PACITA project, the PACITA manifesto argues for the necessity of European political support of future efforts to expand technology assessment (TA) capacities in the European member states. The authors posit the tradition of technology assessment in European as a democratic project to inform policy makers on societal and environmental topics related to science, technology and innovation. And they call attention to the necessity of countering the increasing influence of science and technology on societal development and policy making with increasing capacities for technology assessment. Developing a more comprehensive ‘policy-oriented’ approach to TA is called for by the authors along with an increase in cross-European collaboration in TA.