Socio-Economic Studies on Fusion
Socio-Economic Studies on Fusion
The Socio-Economic Studies Project implemented under the EUROFusion Consortium includes a Social Studies Group, whose work plan for 2014-2018 comprises three dimensions:
- stakeholder dialogue and engagement about fusion energy
- assessing the attitude of the lay public towards fusion
- media analysis of reporting about fusion
1. The ‘Work Plan for the implementation of the fusion roadmap in 2014-2018' acknowledges the development of a dialogue with the EU civil society about fusion energy as a prerequisite for successful DEMO implementation. In the fusion community, as well as in other scientific communities there is a general recognition of the need of a broader engagement of stakeholders and the general public. Involving stakeholders in innovation and large R&D projects can bring many benefits, such as; ensuring that the efforts represent a variety of perspectives; increasing transparency; increasing support from key decision-makers; empowering community members to be involved in the project activities; increasing public awareness; improving coordination efforts. This task will comprise several dimensions: increase awareness (survey and focus groups with physics students and teachers), enhance the Eurofusion communication strategy (multi-method approach to communicators and receivers of Eurofusion communication content), dialogue with informed civil society (workshops, panel deliberations), technical assessment of fusion technology (Delphi with experts).
2. One of the focus points for the sociological research to be carried out within the 2014-2018 timeframe concerns public awareness and acceptance of fusion energy. Assessing the attitude of the lay public towards fusion has been identified as an important topic to be addressed in the SES programme. For that, the main tools foreseen are the design, execution and analysis of a special section dedicated to fusion energy to be included in a large scale public opinion survey to be carried out in Belgium (2015) and the implementation of CATI or web-based surveys in a number of European countries
3. The main goals of research on media reporting about fusion are: to gain more insight into the public understanding of fusion technologies through studying the media frames of these nuclear technologies in both classic news media, such as newspapers in selected countries, and social media; to develop ‘communication tools' which are of practical use, in order to contribute to the quality of the public debate on nuclear fusion technologies.
This project is funded under Eurofusion. It is coordinated by CIEMAT (Ana Prades), with the participation of SCK-CEN (Belgium) and ENEA-FRX. ICS participates under an agreement with IPFN-IST, the Portuguese partner of Eurofusion.
Fusion, Stakeholder engagement, Awereness and acceptance, Media analysis
The Socio-Economic Studies Project implemented under the EUROFusion Consortium includes a Social Studies Group, whose work plan for 2014-2018 comprises three dimensions:
- stakeholder dialogue and engagement about fusion energy
- assessing the attitude of the lay public towards fusion
- media analysis of reporting about fusion
1. The ‘Work Plan for the implementation of the fusion roadmap in 2014-2018' acknowledges the development of a dialogue with the EU civil society about fusion energy as a prerequisite for successful DEMO implementation. In the fusion community, as well as in other scientific communities there is a general recognition of the need of a broader engagement of stakeholders and the general public. Involving stakeholders in innovation and large R&D projects can bring many benefits, such as; ensuring that the efforts represent a variety of perspectives; increasing transparency; increasing support from key decision-makers; empowering community members to be involved in the project activities; increasing public awareness; improving coordination efforts. This task will comprise several dimensions: increase awareness (survey and focus groups with physics students and teachers), enhance the Eurofusion communication strategy (multi-method approach to communicators and receivers of Eurofusion communication content), dialogue with informed civil society (workshops, panel deliberations), technical assessment of fusion technology (Delphi with experts).
2. One of the focus points for the sociological research to be carried out within the 2014-2018 timeframe concerns public awareness and acceptance of fusion energy. Assessing the attitude of the lay public towards fusion has been identified as an important topic to be addressed in the SES programme. For that, the main tools foreseen are the design, execution and analysis of a special section dedicated to fusion energy to be included in a large scale public opinion survey to be carried out in Belgium (2015) and the implementation of CATI or web-based surveys in a number of European countries
3. The main goals of research on media reporting about fusion are: to gain more insight into the public understanding of fusion technologies through studying the media frames of these nuclear technologies in both classic news media, such as newspapers in selected countries, and social media; to develop ‘communication tools' which are of practical use, in order to contribute to the quality of the public debate on nuclear fusion technologies.
This project is funded under Eurofusion. It is coordinated by CIEMAT (Ana Prades), with the participation of SCK-CEN (Belgium) and ENEA-FRX. ICS participates under an agreement with IPFN-IST, the Portuguese partner of Eurofusion.
