Project Outline
One of the main challenges facing the world of research in future years will be to develop a sound and constructive dialogue with the rest of society (citizens, stakeholders, educational institutions).
The recurrent public disputes on scientific and technological issues, the difficult relationship between young people and technical-scientific training, and new policy measures (such as the possibility for citizens to assign a small percentage of their taxes to selected research institutions) give increasingly central importance to the role of the public in choices concerning research, and they require institutions of research and higher education to understand and thoroughly address their relationships with the non-specialist public.
This imposes new tasks and responsibilities on researchers and their institutions.
As one reads in the recent Recommendation by the Committee on the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers:
"Researchers should ensure that their research activities are made known to society at large in such a way that they can be understood by non-specialists, thereby improving the public's understanding of science. Direct engagement with the public will help researchers to better understand public interest in priorities for science and technology and also the public's concerns".
Accordingly, the general aim of project is to lay the bases for the University of Trento to develop a distinctive attention to the relationship between science and society.
The means selected to achieve this goal is the creation of an interdisciplinary work group on "Science, Technology and Society" in order to enhance the many activities already ongoing and to develop new ones.
Specific aims of the project
- The analysis and benchmarking of good practices at international level in the area "Science, Technology and Society" with particular reference to those undertaken by research institutions to develop dialogue between the world of research and innovation and the general public.
- The organization of a programme of interdisciplinary seminars on "Science, Technology and Society", open to the public and held at the lecture hall of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto. These seminars are the core of an interdisciplinary curriculum on "Science, Technology and Society" intended to involve the public and offered on an experimental basis also to doctoral students at the University.
- The conduct of a survey on public opinion in Trentino which measures perceptions, understandings and attitudes towards science and will provide a solid basis for the planning of initiatives in the communication of, and dialogue on, science and technology at the University. The survey, whose design will enable comparisons with national and international data, should be the first stage in the permanent monitoring of medium- and long-period trends and the basis for detailed examination of specific themes .
- The drafting of a planning document on whose basis the University may appraise the feasibility of instituting an interdepartmental centre for research and initiatives on "Science, Technology and Society".
- A further distinctive feature of the project is its endeavour not only to promote interaction among scholars from various disciplines (as is obvious) but also to involve staff at the University who deal on a daily basis with the communication of research to society and the local community.