The Europaische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen
wissenschaftlich-techni- scher Entwicklungen Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH
(european academy) is con- cerned with the scientific study of the
consequences of scientific and technological advance for the individual
and social life and for the natural environment. The main focus is to
examine foreseeable mid-and long-term processes that are especially
influenced by natural-and engineering sciences and the medical
disciplines. The academy fulfills this task by organizing
interdisciplinary expert discussions. Another important issue of the
work of the Europaische Akademie concerns the methodology of Technology
Assessment as a general issue. This is the main reason that the european
academy organized during the past two years a project funded by the
European Commission on Technology Assessment. Methods and Impact (TAMI).
Together with partners from all over Europe a common understanding of
what Tech- nology Assessment (TA) is supposed to do was developed. Most
importantly it was acknowledged that the core of any TA activity has to
be a sound scientific under- standing of the relevant phenomena.
Communication then is of cordial importance to reach the relevant
decision makers as well as the general public. It is true that this
phase of the TA process has been treated with too little attention for
many years. The communication processes between scientific advisers and
policy makers have hence to be further scrutinized.
