Partner 6

The University of Malta Website: www.um.edu.mt

Malta is involved in this study because of the relevance of the skill-sets of its two participants, but also because of its unique characteristics as a small island state, the smallest of the new entrants to the EU on 1 May 2004.

Jennifer Cassingena Harper, whose degree is from the London School of Economics,has extensive experience with foresight techniques, which are often used to project the benefits and costs of new technologies. For example, she led the national foresight exercise in Malta which have lead to the presentation to Cabinet of the updated National RTDI Strategy and the launch of the National RTDI Programme. Dr Cassingena Harper was the local coordinator of the eFORESEE Project (FP5 STRATA Project), aimed at the Exchange of Foresight Relevant Experiences among Small Enlargement Countries) involving two other accession countries, Cyprus and Estonia. Current projects include the ERANET FORSOCIETY and COST Action A22 on Foresight Methodologies.

Noel Zarb-Adami,with degrees in physics and chemistry, will bring leadership experience from industry to the team. He has served as general manager of or consultant to several firms and has participated in foresight exercises in Mauritius, Seychelles, Malaysia, and Malta and with Shell (Petroleum). He also has direct experience at Head of Government level on Science and Technology policy (through CPTM) in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, and Swaziland.

Lisa Pace is a senior researcher with the Malta Council for Science & Technology (http://ww.mcst.gov.mt) and a part-time lecturer at the University of Malta. She has extensive experience in mapping national research and innovation landscapes and in the applications of futures approaches in strategy and policy design. She participated in Malta’s national foresight exercise (eFORESEE) in 2001-2003 and in a futures development project for the regions (FUTURREG http://www.futurreg.net). She was an active participant in the Working Group on Interactions among Researchers, Politicians and the Public within the frame of a COST Action 22 on Foresight Methodologies (http://www.costa22.org).   Lisa PACE, Malta Council for Science & Technology, Villa Bighi, Kalkara MALTA lisa.pace@gov.mt

They will contribute to:

·        Work Package 0 and in particular in relation assess to identifying the main policy challenges, on the basis of the established links with policy and practice in peripheral Europe. Main inputs relate to Jennifer’s experience with social foresight and broader engagement of stakeholders.

·        Work Package 1 and in particular to the tasks related to Inequalities in the knowledge economy and on national, European and global policies.  

·        Work Package 4, in relation to following case studies of the introduction of a set of key technologies in several national contexts in the EU candidate states or Sub-Saharan Africa to examine their effects. Main inputs relate to current work by Jennifer (with Luke Georghiou) on the Scope 2015 project focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa together with insight from Noel’s active involvement in the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM).