The success story continues. Cybersecurity, intermediate energy storage, light pollution, and more than a hundred other topics have been presented to politicians and the public by the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) together with its previous partner AIT over the past four and a half years. Studies were commissioned from several topic proposals.
"I am very pleased about the award of the parliament. This is a reward for our efforts so far. We have started with a new, excellent team and will be able to advise the members of parliament in the best possible way", ITA Director Michael Nentwich is pleased to say. Continuing to advise the National Council on foresight and technology assessment beyond the initial pilot phase is a clear signal that evidence-based policy advice is important to the National Council, as it is to more and more parliaments around the world, and must be institutionalized. "From my perspective, this is an exciting process of continuous change in parliamentary culture. We will continue to provide biannual monitoring reports on important socio-technical developments relevant to Austria and parliament in the coming years."
Monitoring 2.0
During the award procedure, suggestions were made on how monitoring should be optimized in the future. Nentwich: "For the first time, quantitative content analysis methods will also be used. The details will be discussed and determined with the MPs in the coming weeks. What is already certain is that the presentation of future topics on the parliamentary website will be completely redesigned."
Studies to follow
From these semi-annual reports, the MPs can select particular topics for which in-depth studies are requested. In the last project period, for example, these included 5G and blackout, two highly explosive topics for society.
Strong partner
For the new edition, the ITA relies on a new, albeit familiar, partner from the TA family: "We have been able to gain a new, extremely competent partner in the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis in Karlsruhe. ITAS has been running the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag for decades, so it has the greatest possible experience advising parliaments."