TAB at Parliament

TAB has presented itself to the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment

Since 1990 TAB has its established position as an institution providing scientific advice to Parliament. The Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment which is primarily responsible for TAB is the principle disseminator and multiplier of the work performed by TAB into the Committees and other bodies of the German Bundestag.

At the Committee meeting on February 24, 2010 Prof. Armin Grunwald, director of ITAS and TAB, presented the mode of work of TAB for Parliament. ITAS, being an institute of KIT cooperates since 2003 with the Fraunhofer-Institute for Systems- and Innovation Research (ISI), Karlsruhe. Prof Eberhard Umbach, president of KIT, and Prof. Marion Weissenberger-Eibl, director of ISI, introduced their research organizations to the members of the Committee. They embody the broad scientific background and thereby contribute to the supreme quality of the interdisciplinary advisory activity of TAB.

Prof. Grunwald described the cooperation of politics and science in general and of the Bundestags Committees and TAB in particular as a continuous learning experience, in which the communication between the involved groups has a significant influence on the effectiveness of the work. In the responses of parliamentarians which followed it was valued in unison that the reports of TAB are an important element in the effort to conduct political activities and decision making processes based on scientific knowledge. In the overall view at the status quo and forward there was consensus that apart from the multitude of topics that are generated in continuously rising numbers by the Committees the broader perception and intensified utilization of the results should be aimed for.

Following the meeting the staff of TAB was available for the members of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment, their assistants and other interested MPs to discuss specific issues of projects of the different thematic areas. The lively interest in the activities of TAB is an indication that there is to be expected a plurality of suggestions for new topics for TAB again.

25.02.2010

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