External publications

Technology assessment in a multilateral science, technology and innovation system

Ladikas, Miltos / Andreas Stamm
External Publications (2023)

in: Leonhard Hennen et al. (eds.), Technology Assessment in a Globalized World, Cham: Springer, 31-49

ISBN: 978-3-031-10616-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10617-0_3
Open access

Technology Assessment (TA) as a scientific discipline is rather well established in the industrialized regions of the world. Here it can be seen as an integral part of national innovation systems. Usually TA has the goal of informing policy making to better help raising the potentials of emerging or new technologies for sustainable development and avert related riks. In the face of the grand challenges of our time (e.g. food security, climate change, ocean comtamination) the role of TA is increasingly important. New technologies (e.g. CRISPR-CAS 9 to make food systems more resilient to global warming) can be seen as important new pathways, while others stress potential risks. Grand challenges are mostly global, but TA is still carried out on the national level. This is a great disadvantage for developing countries, as they may weigh the opportunities and risks of technologies differently than industrialised nations. On the other hand, they lack scientific-technological competences and capacities to carry out TA in new and complex technologies themselves. And in a globalised world, they might be affected by new technologies, without having weighed up the opportunities and risks beforehand. For instance, this is the case when international investors introduce a technology on their land in developing countries. The book chapter analyses the situation and develops a model for TA at a global level.