Fitting Future-Oriented Technology Analysis Methods to Study Types

In June 2007, the European Parliament’s Scientific Options Assessment (STOA) Panel celebrated its 20th anniversary with an exhibition at the Parliament’s premises in Strasbourg. The opening ceremony included speeches by the Parliament’s president, Hans-Gert Pöttering, and the European Commissioner responsible for Science and Research, Janez Potočnik. His predecessor, Philippe Busquin is now the chairman of the STOA panel which since his assumption of the chair has had a framework contract with a group of technology assessment institutions working for national or regional parliaments in Europe. This arrangement is leading to the production of a series of reports, based mainly on a review of existing literature and the involvement of experts. In particular M. Busquin, as chairman of the panel, has noted several times that such reports would also be of interest to national parliaments, notably those without their own capacities for technology assessment. In order to facilitate the necessary exchange, contacts have been established with the Directorate General Research of the European Commission, the organisation Busquin supervised for 5 years. While there is (no longer) any unit with explicit responsibility for technology assessment in DG Research, there is a Directorate with responsibility for, among other things, foresight. A meeting to sound out the feasibility of a Commission-funded project to disseminate findings for the STOA Panel included a discussion on the distinction between technology assessment and foresight, which finished with the conclusion that they overlap, although the two should not be totally confounded.