Institute for Technology Assessment
| Institute for Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences | |
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| founding | 1987 |
| place | Vienna , Austria |
| director | Michael Nentwich |
| Employee | approx. 30 |
| Website | oeaw.ac.at/ita |
The Institute for Technology Assessment (ITA) is a research facility of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna .
The ITA is the only institution in Austria that is fully and explicitly dedicated to technology assessment (TA). The institute has been organizing the internationally acclaimed annual TA conferences in Vienna for many years and acts as a national and international hub for the TA scene. The ITA has been a full member of the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (EPTA) network (since September 23, 2013) , is a founding member of the German-speaking network technology assessment (NTA) and has been a member of the European Technology Assessment Group (ETAG) since 2009 .
history
Working group at the Institute for Socio-Economic Development Research and Technology Assessment (ISET) since 1985, from 1987 initially independent as "Commission for Technology Assessment", since late 1987 as "Research Center for Technology Assessment" (FTB); From 1994 onwards, the facility was run as an institute (ITA). The founding director was the physicist Ernest Braun (previously head of the Technology Policy Unit at Aston University in Great Britain). The second director was the economist Gunther Tichy (professor at the University of Graz and researcher at the Austrian Institute for Economic Research in Vienna). Michael Nentwich , lawyer and technology researcher, has headed the institute since 2006 . The institute currently has around 30 employees, including around 25 researchers from the natural, engineering, human and social sciences.
Focus of work
The ITA focuses on the following topics:
- The information society , in particular "e-governance" ( e-government , e-democracy , ...), "Privacy" ( Privacy ) and "Network Environments" ( Internet , ...)
- Governance of Controversial Technologies
- Technology and sustainability , including energy research
- Technology assessment basics and methods, especially participation
The ITA website also has a comprehensive presentation of his topics in non-scientific language.
Publications
Some of the ITA publications appear in series on the publication server of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . The institute acts as editor. These are the following series:
- ITA dossiers : two -page presentation of research results in non-scientific language and with regard to options for action in politics and society
- ITA-Manu: scripts : scientific working papers
- ITA reports : results of research projects
- NanoTrust dossiers : short reports, 3–6 pages long, with the results of the NanoTrust project, ie on health and environmental impacts as well as social aspects of nanotechnologies