Technology Assessment Principles and Prospects: European Union Experience

Abstract

The authors of the article, who were among the participants to the IV European Conference on Technology Assessment held in November 2019 in Bratislava, set a goal not only to inform the readers about its results, but also to draw the attention of our engineers, scientists and educationists to the interdisciplinary problem of technology assessment.

Technology assessment principles were considered from the viewpoint of the fundamental documents adopted by world leaders and characterizing the policy of developed countries in the field of science and technology. The Good Governance Principles implied the participation of various stakeholders in decision-making; however, there arises a problem about the competence of these parties. Since 2011, technology assessment institutional and organizational principles are being actively developed in the European Union: financial and educational programs, forums and meetings, publications, and establishment of special research organizations. Conferences on technology assessment have been held since 2013.

The forum participants also touched another key issue – how to digitize the indicators characterizing the extent to which the supported development goals have been achieved. Discussion of the consequences of already developed and applied technologies with an unpredictable benefit-to-harm ratio has been recognized to be an outdated form of assessment. Collaboration has become the key word that sets the tone. Nonetheless, the transition to a new model, in which the right to vote will be given to the public members united with incorruptible competent scientists-experts, will not be an easy and conflict-free process.

The Russian academic and engineering community is gradually joining the pan-European movement; however, the teaching of social and humanitarian disciplines still remains the only form for technology assessment institutionalization in our country. There are proposals to set up a laboratory for social expertise of technological projects at the MPEI Department of Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology, which could also act as a crowdsourcing platform uniting researchers in the sociology of technology.