Research and innovation policy is one of the priority expertise areas addressed by the science and technology options assessment (STOA) panel within the European parliament. I have the honour of chairing this body, as a representative of the committee on industry, research and energy (ITRE). In close cooperation with ITRE and other parliamentary committees, STOA follows all aspects of EU research and innovation policy and, using independent scientific evidence, supports initiatives to strengthen EU capacities in this area, as a means of enhancing competiveness and creating growth, jobs and prosperity in Europe.
In the past few years, to promote better policymaking in the area of research and innovation, STOA has held workshops and carried out studies on the science of innovation, knowledge transfer from public research organisations, science metrics: measuring scientific performance for improved policymaking and responsible governance of science and technology, to mention a few. Such activities are part of STOA's mission to inform the work of MEPs with the latest authoritative scientific evidence concerning the impact of the development and deployment of new and emerging technologies on society, and act as a forum for communication and dialogue among policymakers, the scientific community and society at large.
"While remaining the reference point for strategic science and technology advice within parliament, STOA will also seek more focused, topical science and technology-relevant themes"
STOA focuses its research and outreach work on five priority areas - eco-efficient transport and modern energy solutions, sustainable management of natural resources, health and life sciences, challenges and potential of the information society, and science, technology and innovation policy.
STOA projects are strategic and interdisciplinary, and they aim to assess the widest possible range of options for future policy action. At the end of the previous legislature, the STOA panel decided that it should diversify its activities by moving in the direction of scientific foresight, and reaffirm its foresight role in the area of science and technology, firmly anchored in the agenda setting phase of the policy cycle, as a permanent structure of parliament. In addition, STOA will carry on with its technology assessment work. Both types of projects are meant to inform the committee's strategic planning and current legislative work with high quality, independent and impartial scientific evidence, and can potentially be linked to or lay out the groundwork for parliamentary own-initiative reports.
A valuable input to STOA's future research activity will be the techno-scientific trends reports to be regularly produced by the newly created scientific foresight service, which works closely with the STOA secretariat within the scientific foresight (STOA) unit of the European parliamentary research service (EPRS). EPRS was created in November 2013 to provide MEPs with independent, objective and authoritative analysis and research supportive of their parliamentary work, therefore contributing to the promotion of evidence-based policy-making.
The first of these reports, published in January 2015, identifies 'ten technologies that could change our lives', such as autonomous vehicles, graphene, 3D printing, massive open online courses (MOOCs), virtual currencies (Bitcoin), wearable technologies, drones, aquaponic systems, smart home technologies and electricity storage (hydrogen). Other technologies likely to influence our future will be examined in subsequent trends reports.
"The fact that there are more policy-focused projects within Horizon 2020 maps well into STOA's profile and potentially increases the relevance of the panel’s work for the follow-up of the implementation of Horizon 2020"
Specific technology issues addressed by ongoing or recent (published in 2014) STOA studies include massive surveillance risks and opportunities raised by the current generation of network services and applications and options for longer term security and privacy improvements, potential and impact of cloud computing services and social network websites and possible uses of methanol as a transport fuel in Europe. On the basis of the trends identified, but also depending on the input it will receive from deputies and committees, STOA will soon launch additional technology assessment reports, making use of the approach presented in a recent STOA study on scientific-foresight projects.
While remaining the reference point for strategic science and technology advice within parliament, STOA will also seek more focused, topical science and technology-relevant themes. For example, the panel will be looking to support the European research area's work with scientific intelligence and analysis. This will be done in full cooperation with the legislative committees so as to complement their work, particularly ITRE's.
The fact that there are more policy-focused projects within Horizon 2020 maps well into STOA's profile and potentially increases the relevance of the panel's work for the follow-up of the implementation of Horizon 2020. STOA could envisage accompanying the implementation process through various means, including meetings co-organised with ITRE.
Through the above described panoply of tools (technology assessment, techno-scientific trends, scientific foresight, monitoring policy implementation), STOA aspires to remain at the forefront of the latest technology developments, able to assess the impact of new technologies and provide comprehensive options for the appropriate policy response by parliament and the other European institutions as well as identify technology trends, and carry out horizon scanning and scientific foresight to design legislative pathways consciously chosen so as to reach desirable long-term futures.