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Currently, a structure for parliamentary Technology Assessment (pTA) in Portugal does not exist. However, efforts have been made by the Parliament to support the establishment of pTA through the involvement of external actors. Two different models, a Parliamentary Office of Technology Assessment (GPAT) and a Parliamentary Unit of Technology Assessment (UPAT), have recently been proposed. This paper discusses some of the observations presented in a previous TATuP- paper by Böhle/Moniz (2015) relative to the establishment of TA in Portugal including observations on the GPAT model. In doing so, this paper provides a brief comparative analysis between the two models, including precedents, funding and organisational structure.

The papers on the 16 European countries presented in this issue show their great diversity of health systems. Health technology assessment (HTA) has been institutionalized in a number of members of the European Union and has a growing impact on health policy. A remaining challenge is to see HTA visible and useful at the European level, which requires more active coordination of national and regional activities. A network of HTA programs and researchers has been established. The HTA-Europe Steering Committee has suggested a number of actions by the European Commission to promote further coordination. The most important conclusion of the HTA-Europe report is that a permanent coordinating structure is needed at the European level.

by Robert Hoppe, Twente University, andJohn Grin, University of AmsterdamThis paper discusses how “the” transporta-tion problem was structured in traffic andtransportation studies by the parliamentarytechnology assessment (PTA) agencies ofGermany, Denmark and the European Un-ion. The focus is on cultural biases in TAmethods with regard to the way in whichthe social problem was defined and trans-lated into research questions (problemstructuration), the conclusions drawn fromthe TA studies, and the recommendationspresented. The analysis shows that culturaltheory is useful in assessing the degree ofpluralism in TA studies. It provides an in-strument to probe the assumptions in theviewpoints of experts, lay people, politi-cians and other actors involved in the tech-nology under scrutiny. It is in this area thatcultural theory and political science canfruitfully meet to realize, together, morereflective forms of dealing with cultural plu-ralism in the praxis of policy analysis.1 Introduction