The ideas of ‘responsible development’ in the scientific-technological advance and of ‘responsible innovation’ in the field of new products, services and systems have been discussed for some years now with increasing intensity (Siune et al. 2009) and led to the phrase of ‘Responsible...

Taking the example of the consultation of experts in processes of parliamentary decision-making, this article shows how it is possible to support democratic processes by means of the institutional and organisational type of technology assessment (TA) chosen by the German Bundestag. Members of...

Recent discussions on governance, on science and technology policy and on adequate advice types motivate reconsidering some constitutive issues of technology assessment (TA). To these belong the frequently demanded scientific independence of a TA institution and of TA projects. The semantics of...

At the beginning of the 21st century there are new expectations and challenges towards Technology Assessment (TA). Among these there is a new awareness on TA issues in education, in particular at universities. While TA was mainly an activity at extra-universitarian research institutions for a...