Novi Sad Knowledge Assessment Methodologies Fall School

OPENING OF THE FALL SCHOOL

Venue: Faculty of Science, II floor, classroom no. 1
(Address: Trg Dositeja Obradovica 3)
Date: MONDAY, October 1, 2007
Time: 8.45am

Note: From 8:15am reception desk will be opened in the hall at the entrance to the Faculty!

LECTURE AND PANEL DISCUSSION

Venue: Amphitheatre 1, Department for Biology
(Faculty of Science, Trg Dositeja Obradovica 2)

Date: TUESDAY, October 2, 2007
Time: 8:45am
Lecture: Pietro Laureano "Traditional Knowledge and Water"

PANEL DISCUSSION
Time: from 11:00am

Introduction

The 2007 "Knowledge Assessment Methodologies" Fall School will be held in Novi Sad, Serbia from 1st through 5th October 2007. The venue will take place at Novi Sad University.
The course is organised by the Knowledge Assessment Methodologies Sector of the Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC) at the European Commission’s DG Joint Research Centre (EC-DG JRC) in cooperation with Novi Sad University and UNESCO-BRESCE.
Local organization and secretariat is taken care by Novi Sad University. The School will offer training on several knowledge assessment methodologies that aim at improving policy and decision making where societal upstream engagement is relevant. These include social multi criteria evaluation, participatory methods and scenario building methodologies, uncertainty expression and communication, quality assurance protocols to deal with uncertainty, complexity and risk in decision making processes. The School will offer hands-on exercises with related software packages which will be available for use by the participants during the School.
The attention given to ‘extended’ knowledge assessment methodologies is in accordance with the evolving EU institutional framework that aims at improving governance (EU White paper on Better Governance), democratising expertise (Report) and dealing more explicitly with (scientific) uncertainty in policy related knowledge (EC Communication on the Precautionary principle).
In order to ensure the usefulness of the discussions at the School, participants will be encouraged to initiate applications of the methodologies presented to examples and cases of relevance in their professional contexts (N.B. the special focus of the School this year is Water Governance).

Objectives:

The objectives of the Novi Sad Knowledge Assessment Methodologies Fall School (Novi Sad KFS) are:

To present state-of-the-art tools and methodologies to assess knowledge in an extended way, engaging a wider range of social actors and dealing explicitly with complexity, uncertainty, values and frameworks;
To experiment these approaches in relevant cases for the participants to the Novi Sad KFS;
To outline the main issues regarding science communication in several contexts;
To further reflect on the relevance of these methodological approaches, based on past experiences and an assessment of the professional contexts in which the participants at the School operate.

Target audience:

Target audience of the Novi Sad KFS consists of policy makers, administrators, practitioners and stakeholders in socio-political issues in which technosciences are involved (planning, environment, urban development, transport and energy...).
A limited number of places are available for NGO’s members and researchers in interfaces between science, society and policy making. The School will be open (preferably but not exclusively) to people who hold a degree in Economics, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geography and Political Sciences. The candidates have to be able to communicate in ENGLISH.