Technology Assessment and Participation
One of the important tasks of technology assessment (TA for short) is to examine the consequences of scientific and technological change. Especially in the field of sustainability technologies as well as digital and interactive technologies, the following applies: If opportunities and risks are recognised and debated at an early stage, robust design options arise. In this context, participatory assessments and solution concepts can be developed by involving societal stakeholders in order to exploit innovation potentials at an early stage and to avoid blockade situations. TA studies are not only aimed at decision-makers in politics and society, but also at the general public.
The IZT, as the authoritative institution for TA in Germany, therefore sees it as its task,
- present current technology developments in a fact- and evidence-based manner
- Identify the technology impacts, including cross-cutting societal impacts.
- to show the respective actors and framework conditions
- to neutrally contrast the opposing positions of these actors, as well as
- to name scientific and technical uncertainties.
The IZT has been a permanent consortium member of the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) since 2013. In recent years, IZT has worked on TA projects for the German Bundestag, including Algorithms in Digital Media, Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Ledger Technology in Public Administration, New Electronic Media and Addictive Behaviour, Potentials of Telemedicine or Energy Saving Effects in the Building Sector. We have also conducted TA studies for other clients. These include Quantified Self at the interface between lifestyle and medicine for TA SWISS or our study on RFID for the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
Team
Projects
A selection of projects from the past five years is presented below. A complete overview is available via the search.
Opportunities of digital administration
Risk Analysis Emergency Data Management (NFDM)
Petitions to the German Bundestag - Awareness and use of the right to petition
Guidelines for humane work in the digital world
Algorithms in digital media and their influence on opinion forming
Online citizen participation in parliamentary work
Health apps
LogMySelf - Opportunities, risks and future of lifelogging and self-measurement in discourse with young people
New electronic media and addictive behaviour
Potential benefits of innovative and participatory methodological procedures for the German Bundestag
Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag
Crisis radar - Strengthening the resilience of society, politics and the economy through crisis prediction
Quantified Self - between lifestyle and medicine
Strong female craftswomen Energy + Efficiency
Megatrends and intralogistics
Preliminary study: Online citizen participation in parliamentary work
Evaluation of the energy transition measures
Technology assessment "Child and youth media protection"
Ideation Workshop "Voice"
Localisation technologies
Trend study "Future of the German intralogistics industry 2020+"
Future infectious disease threats in the European Union: Identification and assessment of infectious disease threat scenarios for the European Union.
Networking e-health companies regionally
Workshop preparation, implementation and documentation as part of Deutsche Telekom's "Healthy Living" lighthouse project
Risks and opportunities of the use of RFID systems
EU enlargement in the context of increasing internationalisation - effects on tourism