Comparative Table of Parliamentary TA Institutions

DENMARK - THE DANISH BOARD OF TECHNOLOGY

Target Groups

The target groups are defined for each topic as part of the methodological choice. Methods and communication means are chosen to involve those actors who can make change. This often involves Parliament as target group together with other important actors.

The expert communities may be target groups when the topic involves new orientation of research and innovation, or if research ethics (responsible research and innovation) may be of importance. There may be a need for bridge-building between academic communities, or it may be good to introduce self-reflexion among scientists on the societal impact of their research. Often this may be facilitated by involving the experts directly in the assessments, thereby making the assessments and effectively communicating them at the same time.
Stakeholders may be very important actors if change is going to be induced. It may be that different stakeholders are blocking each other, thereby inhibiting the necessary change. Or, stakeholders may act on very different kinds of knowledge from which they define their opposing positions. Mediation and knowledge sharing therefore may be components in the involvement of stakeholders. Stakeholders are strong communicators to policy-makers if they back up the assessments and often they may even be able to induce change directly through their strong networks.
Citizens can be important target groups for technology assessment, but cannot be reached directly because of the limited resources available. Therefore, citizens mainly can be reached through the media, which makes the press an important primary target group.
Political decision-makers are most often a primary target group because of the importance of legislation in many technology fields, and because of the agenda-setting function of Parliament. In a broader sense, political decision-makers (region, municipalities) are important for administrative policy-making on environment, health, education, infrastructure etc. Accordingly, DBT considers all levels of political decision-making when selecting target groups.

DBT separates between »need-to-know« and »nice-to-know« target groups. The strategy for needs-to-know is to establish direct collaboration (involvement) with the target groups around the assessment, since that ensures the optimal communication situation. Nice-to-know target groups are mostly reached through workshops, conferencing, publications, newsletters and the press.

Chapter Target Groups - all countries

Country Report Denmark