11.2. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 39/5 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Proposal for a Council Decision concerning Community action in the field of forecasting and 
assessment in science and technology (FAST) 
COM(87) 502 final/2 
(Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 29 October 1987) 
(88/C 39/06) 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to Article 130Q (2) of the Treaty estab­
lishing the European Economic Community, 
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, 
In cooperation with the European Parliament, 
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and 
Social Committee, 
Whereas the Community has as its task the promotion of 
a harmonious economic and social development between 
the Member States in the context of growing economic 
and commercial relations with other countries and 
whereas scientific and technological changes play a role 
of increasing importance in future economic and social 
development; 
Whereas closer technological and scientific cooperation 
between universities, research centres and enterprises 
within the Member States, with extra-Community 
cooperation, is absolutely necessary to safeguard a 
capacity for long-term European strategies in high tech­
nology, comparable to those of other world economic 
and technological powers; 
Whereas the increasingly complex and stochastic 
relations between science and technology, on the one 
hand, and the phenomena of growing integration 
between the different sciences and basic technologies, on 
the other, call for continuous and vigilant monitoring; 
Whereas the internationalization of technologies and 
markets, in the light of intense competition, increasing 
R&D costs, reduction in the life cycle of products and 
great uncertainties on a regulatory and monetary level, require efficient monitoring of research and technology, 
particulary on an international and European level; 
Whereas forecasting in science and technology based on 
European cooperation proves — in the context of the 
Single European Act — indispensable for formulating 
common visions and strategies with regard to the long-
term economic and social outcomes to be given to the 
development and utilization of new technologies; 
Whereas in 1986 the European Parliament approved, on 
an experimental basis, the setting up of an assessement 
body of scientific and technological options (STOA: 
Scientific and Technological Options Assessment); 
Whereas the Economic and Social Committee has on 
several occasions emphasized the importance and 
usefulness it gives to forecasting and assessment of the 
implications and socio-economic consequences of 
scientific and technological changes; 
Whereas several important initiatives have been taken in 
most of the Member States regarding the institutional­
ization, either within governmental bodies or at 
parliamentary level, of activities for forecasting and 
assessment in science and technology; 
Whereas in the last few years other Commission 
departments have developed the means for strategic 
analysis of long term developments in their fields of 
interest, including the impact of technological change 
related thereto; 
Whereas the promotion and development of Community 
networks for cooperation and research between organ­
izations specializing in forecasting and assessment of 
science and technology constitutes one of the most 
significant attainments of the FAST activities to date; 
Whereas the framework programme of Community 
action for research and technological development (1987 
No C 39/6 Official Journal of the European Communities 11. 2. 88 
to 1991) envisages horizontal Community activity in 
forecasting and assessment of science and technology 
(encompassing all technological sectors and fields of 
application, calling for a transdisciplinary approach); 
Whereas the work programme of such an action, in its 
function as a tool for the planning of Community 
research, must be defined on a flexible basis to adapt 
to the needs which emerge in the execution of the 
'Framework Programme'; 
Whereas the Scientific and Technical Research 
Committee (Crest) has delivered its opinion, 
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: 
Article 1 
A new Community action in the field of forecasting and 
assessment of science and technology (entitled FAST), 
defined in the Annex, following the FAST II research 
programme, is hereby adopted for a period of five years, 
beginning on 1 January 1988. Article 2 
The appropriations necessary to cover the Community 
contribution in the execution of the new FAST are 
estimated at 14,0 million ECU over five years, including 
personnel costs (6 A, 2 B, 4 C for 1988 and 8 A, 2 B, 5 C 
for the following years) and the cost of researchers 
seconded to FAST by the Member States to a maximum 
of 25 man-years. The allocation of this amount is given 
in the Annex. 
Article 3 
The Commission shall undertake the execution of the 
FAST activities. It will be assisted in its work by a 
General Advisory Committee (GAC) in accordance with 
the resolutions laid down in Decision 84/338 Euratom, 
ECSC, EEC(X). The GAC-FAST will be called the 
European Committee for the Forecasting and Assessment 
of Science and Technology (CEPEST) (2). 
0) OJ No L 53, 22. 2. 1985, p. 5. 
(2) Comite Europeen de la Prospective et de l'Evaluation Scien-
tifique et Technique. 
ANNEX 
Action of research in the field of forecasting and assessment in Science and Technology (new FAST) 
I. AIMS AND FUNCTIONS 
1. The aim of the FAST activities is to contribute to the identification and definition of new directions 
and priorites for a common policy for research and technological development in the European 
Community and the links with other Community policies. To this end FAST will analyse long term 
scientific and technological changes and study their implications for socio-economic development 
and the quality of life in the countries of the Community. 
2. The actions of the new FAST will respond to three principal functions: 
— a 'forecasting' function, 
— an 'assessment' function, 
— a 'monitoring' function. 
The forecasting /unction will develop hypotheses and shed light on the long term opportunities, 
problems and challenges to Europe of scientific, technological, social and economic developments. It 
will focus on a number of key problem areas of a global nature, such as: 
— the long term implications and consequences for European industry and its competitiveness in the 
context of the internationalization of the economy, of the increasing convergence and interaction 
between different technologies (notably: materials, microelectronics, advanced production tech­
nologies and light technologies). The integration between the agricultural, chemical and energy 
industries which was already studied in FAST II should be developed further, 
— the implications and long term consequences for the smaller countries of the Community (in 
terms of population, market size, etc.) of the development and diffusion of new technologies, 
— the implications and long term consequences of developments in human biology, 
— the long term implications and consequences of scientific and technological development in 
transport, energy, communications, etc. for the Community's urban areas as we enter the 21st 
century. 
11. 2. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 39/7 
The technology assessment Junction will comprise three types of analyses: 
— factual analyses concerning the prospects for a technology, sector or scientific field, the analysis of 
a major event, 
— anticipation and impact analyses into the technological, economic and social implications of likely 
development in a particular field, family of technologies or at the interface between a number of 
different technologies and sectors, 
— strategic analyses of the European position (strengths and weaknesses, inter-regional comparisons 
with the Community, international comparisons). 
The monitoring /unction will include analyses on scientific and technological indicators, the method­
ology of forecasting and technology assessment and their institutionalization and utilization. 
II. MODE OF OPERATION 
3. The preceding paragraphs have laid down the general framework — and the major guidelines — of 
the FAST activities in relation to which the work programme is defined. Bearing in mind the nature 
of forecasting and assessment activities and the integrative function of FAST in the different stages 
of the planning process of Community research, the work programme has been defined on a flexible 
basis to correspond to the needs of the Commission and Member States as they emerge during the 
execution of the 'Framework Programme'. 
4. The work programme will be defined and put into effect by the Commission, in cooperation with 
CEPEST, according to the following arrangements. 
5. For the first year (1988) three lines of action are to be followed: 
Line of Action I concerns activities of diffusion and analysis of the results of FAST II in view of 
their utilization: 
(a) Within the Commission 
— organization of internal seminars for the presentation and debate of the results and proposals 
of FAST, by groups of Directorates-General according to the subject, and also to CODEST, 
IRDAC and other consultative committees of the Commission, 
— diffusion of short information flashes on the most significant results. 
(b) In the Member States with the aid and active participation of the members of CEPEST: 
— organization of seminars and working meetings in each Member State of the Community 
with specialized audiences, (for example, those responsible for R & D, or industrialists in the 
European food system) based on strategic and/or exploratory synthesis dossiers already 
produced by FAST before December 1987; also to a larger public in the form of one-day 
conferences focused, for example, on the presentation of the second FAST final report, 
— drafting and translating into Community languages of new short synthesis documents 
presenting principal messages issuing from FAST's research, 
— continuation of the publication of articles in specialized scientific reviews, 
— publication of the results'of FAST in bulletins, journals or reviews of national ministries 
responsible for research and scientific development policy. 
Line of Action II aims in particular at experimenting with and verifying: 
— the capacity of FAST to produce short term studies responding to demands expressed by the 
Commission, 
— the function of the GIP (Groupe Interservices de Prospective), and 
— conditions which must be met in order that FAST's work can analyse problems at a world level 
more effectively than in the past. 
Equally under this line of action will figure the experimentation and verification of propositions 
submitted by the evaluation group of FAST II and retained by the Commission in cooperation with 
CEPEST. 
Official Journal of the European Communities 11. 2. 88 
Line of Action III concerns the realization of the research activities themselves: 
(a) two assessment exercises on the long term implications and consequences of scientific and tech­
nological change; the first would aim at developing an in-depth assessment of the impact of new 
technologies on land use within the perspective of a common European policy on land use; the 
second would refer to the implications and consequences over the next 20 to 30 years of the 
development and diffusion of new technologies for the smaller countries of the Community (in 
terms of population, market size, etc.); 
(b) the development of two cooperative networks, one on science and technology indicators in the 
European Community; the other on research methodologies for technology assessment and fore­
casting. 
6. In conformity with paragraph 11,3 above, during the course of the first year the Commission will 
define: 
— the precise content of the central key areas of research mentioned in paragraph 1,2 for 1989 to 
1992, 
— the detailed programme of further FAST activities for the years 1989 and 1990. 
7. The Commission will define the detailed programme of FAST activities for 1991 and 1992 in 1990. 
8. The structuring of FAST activities does not exclude the possibility of carrying out studies of short 
duration which correspond to the particular circumstances of the Commission. 
9. The setting up of the FAST activities will involve the following elements: 
— the development and reinforcement of the FAST '12 + 1' network, comprising 12 national FAST 
units nominated by the Member States, 
— the association of research centres or teams in the Community countries specialized in the work 
of forecasting and assessment in science and technology for the realization of the three lines of 
action mentioned above by, for example, setting up ad hoc European cooperative networks, 
— the detachment to the FAST unit by Community and national institutions of high level scientific 
'visiting fellows' (to a maximum of 5 men for 1988) each of whom will actively participate in the 
realization of the activities described above.