Welcome

The European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER) brings together independent scientific expertise to develop public-good knowledge for the critical assessment of existing and emerging technologies.

ENSSER is committed to:

  1. Transparent, high quality scientific information that focuses on the ecological, health, and socioeconomic aspects of technology use.
  2. The assessment of alternative options within technology policy, strengthening innovation and long term sustainability, meanwhile prioritising public and environmental safety.

The objective of ENSSER is the advancement of public-good science and research for the protection of the environment, biological diversity and human health against adverse impacts of new technologies and their products.

ENSSER advocates benign and peaceful use of scientific discoveries and technological developments, while expanding diverse approaches to assess their utility and safety in society.

ENSSER considers that critical, independent and transparent analyses of technology options can best promote sustainable and humane technology development that addresses both current and future social and environmental problems.

ENSSER promotes the critical European and international discourse on new technologies, their impacts and their regulation. As scientific and technological advances, are increasingly driven by private interest, health and environmental safety information needs often lag behind. As a result, the relationship between science, society and environment in science policy should be restructured to better protect the public interest.

ENSSER promotes critical thinking to help reshape current models towards more democratic and participatory agenda-setting processes. This requires creating spaces for scientific information independent from economic and political influence, and includes the identification, use, and quality assessment of scientific, lay, local, traditional and other knowledge sources.

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ENSSER adheres to the standards of the "Initiative Transparent Civil Society" of Transparency International Germany.

News

01/27/12

Conference Announcement

Time for Convergence in European Technology Assessment and Risk Assessment

This conference will be convened in Madrid/Spain on May 16-18, 2012 by ENSSER, the European Environment Agency, the Fundaciòn Vivosano, and the Cátreda Universidad-Empresa-Sindicato: Trabajo, Ambiente y Salud. The conference will bring together scientists and experts to discuss the social, economic and environmental dimensions of controversial and emerging technologies and to draft an Action Plan to support the changes needed in scientific paradigms and practices and in the control of technological choices.

11/21/11

How much insecticide do Bt plants actually produce?

New publication shows inadequacies in risk assessment

A new publication by an international research consortium has revealed several inadequacies in current approaches to risk assessment of genetically engineered plants producing Bt toxins. Now for the first time, joint research involving four laboratories and several ENSER members has shown that the results produced by industry and other institutions so far are not reliably reproducible and comparable because they are not determined and validated by standardized methods.