The User Committee is one of the engagement activities under NanoDiode where issues relating to the steering of Research and Innovation (R&I) are discussed with external actors. Engagement activities can have an open character with an input of non-(nano)skilled citizens trying to identify priorities for R&I based on an open discussion with citizens about nanotechnologies’ possibilities, challenges and societal needs, a form that was explored under WP2.3 in the Multistakeholders dialogues (MSD). Engagement activities may have as well a more deliberative character, trying to give external actors in the debate a more directive position, as was explored in the WP3.1 the 3rd Generation Deliberation Projects (3GDP). The User Committees are more specifically focussed on a specific nanotechnological topic trying to organize a structured deliberation between the nano-research community and societal stakeholders, with the explicit aim to give the latter a stronger voice in the steering of the direction of R&I. User Committees differ from MSD and 3GDP in the used formats for the activities and the participants. Where the MSD aims to envisage socially desirable directions at the level of research policies and the 3GDP aims to engage participants on the ethical and social dimensions of nano R&I, the User Committee aims to ‘modulate’ the flow of on-going research decisions.
Download the report on User Committees: NanoDiode_UC_Final-Report_Jan2016
