4TU.Ethics collaborates with many governmental organisations. Our goal is to help improve policy by analysing and identifying potential impacts of new technologies and their ethical aspects, and by relating our findings to policy. Through our connections with policy makers we have become an important voice regarding the ethical implications of regulating and implementing technology in society.

Collaborating with Governmental Organisations

Our members have many advisory and supervisory roles in committees set up by governmental institutions. These allow us to give advice to policy makers, and the transfer of knowledge from our research to them directly.  Such committees include:

• UNESCO – COMEST: Committee on the Ethics of Science and Technology.
• Dutch Ministry of Environment and Infrastructure: advisory group on new risks.
• The European Data Protection Supervisor Ethics Advisory Group.
• The RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation).
• Tools Advisory Board of the EU.
• Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs: Expert Group Big Data and Privacy.
• The Commitee for Ethics and Health (national ethics committee which advises the Dutch Government).
• TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research).
• COGEM (committee on genetic modification that advises the Dutch government).
• COVRA / OPERA (Dutch research institute for nuclear disposal).
• PRIMO Nederland (public risk management organisations).

Other governmental organisations we have collaborated with include the International Atomic Energy Organization, the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice, the Swedish Ministry of the Environment, Danish Standards foundation, Euclid Network (the EU network of civil society leaders), RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency), and many others.

Future Outreach

Not only do we wish to uphold our reach, we wish to intensify it. We aim to expand our influence through media with governmental and/or civil society organisations as their target audience, as well as through workshops, symposia, and research programmes. Currently, we involve both governmental and nongovernmental organisations in our research in our ongoing Delphi studies, wild card workshops and expert panels, and through interviews and questionnaires. Other examples would be workshops on managing risks and uncertainties and on responsible governance of disruptive technologies. These activities all include knowledge transfer to a greater or lesser extent.

Contact

For more information about collaboration with 4TU.Ethics, please contact our members individually or one of our coordinators at