The OECD’s work on “Evaluating the Impact of Convergence – Towards a Guidance Framework for Future Policy Assessment” was presented at this year’s European Forum for Studies of Policies for Research and Innovation, held on the 7.-9. June 2019 in Vienna.
The paper describes the background motivation of the OECD Working Party on Biotechnology, Nanotechnology and Converging Technologies (BNCT) to develop and conduct a project on ‘Harnessing Convergence for the Next Production Revolution’. The paper outlines the development of the BNCT approach for the impact assessment of emerging technologies and their policies.
In order to assess both the impact of technologies undergoing a convergence and the impact of policies affecting those technologies, a two-tier approach has been developed. In both tiers, the need for non- traditional approaches of assessment coming from the social sciences and humanities (SSH) and the concepts of responsible research and innovation (RRI) is given specific consideration.
