A prerequisite for establishing a TA infrastructure related to policy making bodies on a national level is the awareness of the existence and advantages of TA related activities and a functioning communication structure among those networks (institutions and persons) involved.

The lack of knowledge and mutual awareness of existing capacities and demands and the lack of platforms for communication between the actors is the main obstacle for initiating mobilisation and mutual learning processes. Therefore an indispensable activity in promoting TA is to get a good overview of the existing capacities and demands and to effectively communicate it to the involved actors.

During 2011-2012 PACITA analysed those partner countries with no TA infrastructures related to their parliament or government to identify the potential of existing structures and activities in S&T policy making with the aim of supporting the setting up of a national TA network and institutional structure.

In this workshop the results of the above mentioned task were presented in country reports and a comparative analysis was made. The final report can be downloaded here.

Finally 3 experts gave the lectures under the title “New landscapes of TA in the light of debates on TA and political sciences”: