The Europaische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich-techni scher
Entwicklungen Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH (european academy) is con cerned with the scientific
study of the consequences of scientific and technological advance for the individual and social
life and for the natural environment. The main focus is to examine foreseeable mid-and
long-term processes that are especially influenced by natural-and engineering sciences and the
medical disciplines. The academy fulfills this task by organizing interdisciplinary expert
discussions. Another important issue of the work of the Europaische Akademie concerns the
methodology of Technology Assessment as a general issue. This is the main reason that the
european academy organized during the past two years a project funded by the European
Commission on Technology Assessment. Methods and Impact (TAMI). Together with partners from all
over Europe a common understanding of what Tech nology Assessment (TA) is supposed to do was
developed. Most importantly it was acknowledged that the core of any TA activity has to be a
sound scientific under standing of the relevant phenomena. Communication then is of cordial
importance to reach the relevant decision makers as well as the general public. It is true that
this phase of the TA process has been treated with too little attention for many years. The
communication processes between scientific advisers and policy makers have hence to be further
scrutinized.
