The idea of the politicians and researchers session is to focus on the policy advice aspect of TA by combining the perspectives of the TA practitioner with those of the clients. Selected TA projects were presented from two perspectives: the involved researcher/project manager as well as the “client”, i.e. the policy maker (member of parliament, representative of ministry or other public authority). The session was meant to discuss the project process, the respective perspectives and the communication between the project management side on the one hand and the user on the other hand. Questions / aspects dealt with included:

• Scoping process: relevant issues (seen from the policy making and the project management perspective)
• Being comprehensive vs. pragmatic (What should be done and what can be done)
• Time schedule: Thorough analysis vs. meeting the policy making agenda
• Opening up to the wider attentive public
• Developing options for policy making (supporting policy making without intervening)
• Facts vs. values (How to be unbiased)
• Feeding results into the policy making process (What is the message and how to get it through?)

The background document for this session is available here.

Presentations of the session:

• Netherlands: Dr. Jacqueline B. de Jong (Strategic Advisor, Strategy Development Department, Ministry of Security and Justice + Prof. Dr. Frans W.A. Brom (Head of Technology Assessment Rathenau Instituut)
• Finland: Päivi Lipponen, Dr. of Education Sciences, MP, Chair of the Committee for the Future + Harri Jaskari, MP, Committee for the Future + Elina Kuusisto,  Dr. of Education, University of Helsinki/Faculty of Education Sciences + Paula Tiihonen, Dr. of Administrative Sciences