
Interactions between a variety of (potential) stakeholders is becoming a key area
in the direction and evaluation of R&D and innovation. In Europe, and elsewhere,
there is a move to include citizens at early stages of R&D concerning the effects
of new technologies in society.
This is combined with a growing recognition that early interactions with potential
users can provide insights to improve the design and market embedment of a technology.
Also, engagement between the developers of a technology and public agencies is seen
as a means to pave-the-way to productive tech-regulatory landscapes that allow safe
and beneficial technologies
Productive and constructive interactions and engagements is a challenging area in
which teQnode SARL participates. Building on over 20 years of expertise on Constructive
Technology Assessment, teQnode participates in the following activities:
organising and conducting productive workshop-based interactions between multiple
actors, combining expertise to explore a particular are, challenge or opportunity
in relation to a new technology, a sector or an area of society in which a technology
may impact.
1) Participating as facilitators in externally organised interaction/engagement
activities
2) Honing tools and practices for both creating, conducting and
evaluating engagements and interactions
3) Analysing the engagement and interaction landscape, providing data and analysis
on trends in engagement within different fields of science, technology and society
4)
Partners in teQnode have been gaining recognition in Constructive Technology Assessment
through successful workshop-based interactive exercises in areas including (though
not limited to):
telemonitoring for heart disease
space technologies
bio-electronics
novel foods and cosmetics
new agrochemical delivery approaches
nanotechnology governance
deep-brain stimulation and imaging technologies
nanomedicine
drug delivery
lab-on-a-chip
molecular machines / synthetic biology
new food packaging materials