How can we address citizens’ concerns for the future through science? Sergio Bellucci, Director TA-SWISS, Foundation for Technology Assessment Brussels, 2017
Question How to include CIMULACT-like processes in the future European research and innovation Framework Program How should citizens be involved in scientific agenda setting?
Why we do it in Switzerland Producing citizen-based visions for the future(s) Extracting societal needs from the visions Making research scenarios – as input to “Scoping Papers” Producing research topics for Horizon 2020 2018-2020
Involvment in the agenda-setting Involve citizens in a Foresight-Process when preparing the FP9 Two possibilities (or combinations): Comments from the citizens on proposed Research-Issues by the FP9 Experts Proposition on new Research-Issues by the citizens directly to the responsible Experts of FP9 This approach should possibly be limited only to 2-3 European countries!
Some examples for pTA impact Switzerland. Publiforum on Transplantation Medicine Integration of the citizen’s recommendations in the text of the Federal Law on Transplantation One of the big hospitals set up a unit for the psychological care of concerned patients (as recommended by the citizens) Netherlands. A nationwide platform has collected about 12’000 questions from the public - > used to define the Dutch Research Agenda
Lessons learnt Citizens and stakeholders are willing to invest time and energy in participation At the same time they often express scepticism as to the willingness of the (research or political) system to really listen. They are afraid of being instrumentalized and they sometimes suspect partecipation to be a form of state parternalism (let’s pretend we listen to them to keep them quiet, or, worse: to justify what we wanted to do anyway) Note: we cannot solve our societal challenges if politics, research, stakeholders and citizens are not in sync. And we need to increase mutual trust.
It’s all about commitment Do not do participation if there is no clear commitment to make use of the results -> importance of follow-up and dissemination of results
It may even be an instrument against populism René Longet: «The main reason for the creation of a TA institution was to have an interface between opinions and facts, a tool to weigh opinions in order to enhance the democratic legitimacy of policies guiding technological development.» Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss dramatist: «What concerns everyone, can only be solved by everyone.» (Die Physiker)