The evaluation of government programmes and measures in the field of technology policy has gained in significance in Germany over the past decade. A variety of evaluation studies on individual projects or programmes with different aims, approaches and methods are available. Which experiences were gained with the instrument of evaluation in this policy area? Evaluation of Technology Policy Programmes in Germany: demonstrates trends of government policy in Germany; documents experiences with the use of various promotion instruments; represents approaches and methods, used in the past years to test the efficiency of various tools of industrial technology policy and discusses their strengths and weaknesses, and draws conclusions for the further development of the evaluation of technology policy in selected areas. £/LIST£ The book includes contributions by authors from the most highly recognized German institutes and consultants working in the evaluation of technology policy, of interest to policy makers, administrators, as well as researchers, scholars and students of economics, innovation research and public policy.

1. 1 Purpose of the Study When the Agreement for the Foundation of the European Economic Community (EC Treaty) was extended and changed by the Single European Act (SEA), ratified by all the Member States of the European Community (EC) in July 1987, research and techno logical development were placed for the first time on an equal footing with other politi cal competences of the EC. In the newly added Articles 130 f - q of the EC Treaty the aims and policy measures are clearly formulated, thus giving the EC a real competence to act. The main aim of European research and technological development policy (RID policy) is (according to Article 130f of the SEA) to strengthen the scientific and technical basis of European industry and the development of its international competitiveness, to support transnational cooperation between industry and science, and to integrate the area of research and technological development into the general concept for the realisation of the internal market of the European Community. The main instruments of European RID policy are the "Community Framework Pro grammes", running for several years, in which the aims, priorities and fmancial dimen sions are defmed for a period of four to five years.

Worldwide simultaneous effects of technologies, international challenges such as climate change as well as shifting relationships between science and society call for approaches that can address these issues on a global level. This book examines the potential of Technology Assessment (TA), as an until now mainly national and Western concept, to take on this global level and provide answers to these pressing questions.

The contributors analyse and contrast the need and demand for RIT performance measurement and evaluation within the US and European innovation and policy making systems. They assess current US and European RIT evaluation practices and methods in key areas, discuss applications of new evaluative approaches and consider strategies that could lead to improvements in RIT evaluation design and policies.

Parliaments and Technology explores an issue critically important to the practice of democracy everywhere: How do citizens and elected officials assess the opportunities and costs of new technologies that may profoundly impact their societies' future? For example, what are the social and moral implications of gene patents, reproductive technology, cloning and genetic engineering or of virtually unlimited access to information? Technology assessment has become one of the most important methodologies for aiding legislatures in analyzing and deliberating such questions. The first comparative analysis of the development and practice of parliamentary technology assessment in different national settings, this book explains the origins, methods, and impacts in five European countries—Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands—and the European Parliament. It also provides a theoretical framework for comparing the institutionalization of new functions in different parliamentary systems and the influence of national political cultures on the conceptualization and operation of these new agencies. Contributors include Josée van Eijndhoven, John Grin, Dick Holdsworth, Rob Hoppe, Simon Jos, Lars Klüver, Todd M. La Porte, Maurice Laurent, Michael Norton, Herbert Paschen, Thomas Petermann, and Norman J. Vig.