PACITA · Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment

The PACITA Mobilisation and Mutual Learning Action Plan will distribute capacity and enhance the institutional foundation for knowledge-based policy-making on issues involving science, technology and innovation, mainly based upon the practices in Parliamentary Technology Assessment (PTA). PTA supports the processes of democratic policy-making on issues involving science, technology and innovation, by providing comprehensive insight into knowledge on opportunities and consequences, by facilitating democratic processes of debate and clarification, and by formulating policy options.PACITA will a) document these practices, b) describe schemes for using them nationally and at European level, c) establish a set of training schemes for users and practitioners, d) establish a Web Portal to European TA expertise e) create a debate on such practices in countries, which do not have them formally established, f) involve experts, societal actors and politicians in European debates on these practices, g) provide three large example-projects on expert-based praxis, stakeholder involvement and citizen consultation, h) support this with a strong dissemination strategy towards the policy-makers, the scientific community, media and countries, which can favor from the mobilization and mutual learning created by the Action Plan, and i) have an independent evaluator monitor the progress and results.The consortium has 15 partners from: National/regional parliamentary offices for science and technology; Science academies; Research institutions; Universities; Civil Society Organisations. The Coordinator is a PTA institution, highly experienced in project managing, which has taken part in more than 10 EU projects including an ERA-Net, and has coordinated two FP projects and a global citizen consultation project involving 55 partners in 38 countries.