VALUE ISOBARS

The Landscape and Isobars of European Values in Relation to Science and New Technology

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The goal of this project is to provide the blueprints for a value-based and value-informed new and flexible governance of the science-society relation in Europe. Furthermore, the study shall identify necessary research tasks in order to move from a generic understanding of value-based and value-informed governance to more specific mechanisms of governance that improve current practice. Emerging biotechnologies with dual use problematic and security technologies (biometrics) shall serve as pilots to test the validity of the framework. The key research challenges are: understanding the very concept of social/ethical values, improving the methodology for the study of values, identifying innovative mechanisms of platforms for value-based dialogue in civil society and citizen consultation, and assessing the potential of legal and regulatory instruments, including soft-law, to provide value-oriented framework orientation for scientific and technological development. Two specific technologies will be analyzed in these respects closely: biotechnology dealing with pathogens with a pandemic potential (biosafety and biosecurity issue), and biometrics as a security technology. The project shall result in a multi-disciplinary report that summarizes existing knowledge on social values and their relevance for attitudes to science and technology, and that furthermore sketches the blueprint of a more coherent, flexible and dynamic conception of a value-based governance of science and technology. The report is aimed at policy makers and researchers concerned about ethical issues in current or upcoming scientific and technological developments and policies. An additional report shall suggest and specify more concrete research topics within “Science in Society” and FP7 generally. Specific attention shall be given to dual-use problematic and security technologies. Feedback on the draft of the report shall be sought through an interactive website and a selected group of European experts.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

A European study sought ways to improve governance of science and technology to match our value system.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

With phenomenally rapid growth in technology and science, the EU is looking for ways to govern innovation in these sectors in line with a system based on European values. The project http://www.value-isobars.eu/ (VALUE ISOBARS) (The landscape and isobars of European values in relation to science and new technology) represents a recent EU-funded project that worked to develop a value system.

The project worked on developing blueprints for the flexible governance of science and its relationship with society, beginning with biotechnologies such as those for pathogen research and security technologies such as biometrics.

VALUE ISOBARS studied social and ethical values, fostering robust value-based dialogue with citizens. It also evaluated legal and regulatory instruments to help govern scientific and technological development.

Among its major achievements, the project clarified the concepts behind social and ethical values, highlighting philosophical and social science traditions. It investigated the subtleties between norms, values, rules, morals and preferences, emphasising a European perspective regarding these concepts and definitions.

The project also examined the relationship between values and public perceptions of science and technology. It considered different approaches to measuring values, proposing ways to engage stakeholders and citizens in value issues with respect to the two interrelated fields. In one exercise, the project involved around 100 students in an exciting discourse on biometrics, biotechnology and biosecurity.

Another important project result was a detailed analysis of values, rights and legal principles focusing on two key issues, namely human cloning and biometrics. Cutting-edge results from these and other studies were published on the project website and discussed in several meetings that involved different stakeholders.

Overall, the work accomplished under VALUE ISOBARS is expected to improve the governance of science and technology by taking important value issues into consideration. It has already supported the mapping of values and how the metaphor of value isobars translates into specific instruments for value-based governance. This will be useful in furthering governance first on a European level an eventually on national and regional levels as well.