Agenda
Key events
From Spring 2006 onwards - Policy advice workshops and dissemination events
Since January 2006 the partner organisations have launched different types of initiatives at both national and European level to disseminate results and provide policy advice to relevant stakeholders and policy makers. Such initiatives include presentations in relevant fora such as national parliaments and Scientific conferences, and the organisation of policy advice workshops. Willing citizens can play a key role during these events.
Find out about policy advice and dissemination initiatives
20-23 January 2006 Second European Citizens’ Convention
Objective: The central goal of this convention was to jointly formulate European observations, opinions, recommendations and proposals to be presented to interested experts, stakeholders, policy-makers, the media and the general public in Europe.
This was the last meeting involving all the members of the European panel. The citizens produced a 'European assessment' of brain science, focusing on commonalities and differences, the underlying values, differences between European countries and regions, gender differences and so on. This has been submitted to European policy-makers at a special event attended by the press and public. The European assessment report was handed over to high-level European officials and representatives of the European scientific and research community at a public ceremony.
Location: Brussels (Belgium)
Date: 20-23 January 2006
Programme of the Second European Citizens' Convention
List of the Citizens' Panels per country
Read the final report
Full report Public Presentation 23 January 2006
Summary Public Presentation 23 January 2006
Watch the video (4'): "Walk through the Second European Citizens' Convention"
6 December 2005 European Stakeholder meeting
In order to inform a wide range of European stakeholders about the Meeting of Minds project, the King Baudouin Foundation organised a second European stakeholder workshop prior to the Final Citizens' Convention. The goal of the workshop was to further inform Members of European Parliament and other interested stakeholders about the actual developments in the field of neuroscience; the social and ethical questions that arise, and how these issues link up to the 7th Research Framework Programme and to EU action in the field of mental health. Leading neuroscientistes, ethicists and policy makers were be invited to provide their views on these subjects. The meeting was co-hosted by MEPs Jules Maaten (ALDE, NL) and Linda McAvan (EPS, UK). It took take place in the European Parliament on Tuesday 6 December 2005.
For background information, please click here.
For a list of stakeholders attending the meeting, please click here.
A Summary report of this second European stakeholder workshop can be downloaded here.
Full report here available.
Quotes of experts and policy-makers.
October-November 2005 Second National Citizens’ Assessment Meeting (third and last national meeting)
Third meeting of the citizens in each of the 9 participating countries
Objective: produce national citizens’ assessment reports stating observations, opinions and making recommendations for both the national and the European agenda; present and discuss the results of the assessment process with stakeholders, policy makers, the media and the public.
The discussions from the previous national meeting were continued and expanded. Participants were able to raise questions with the experts and policy-makers they invited. Working in this way, the participants slowly gathered the information needed to draw up a shared view on the subject. The opinion of the panels in each country was written up in a document submitted on their behalf at the second and final European convention.
Dates of the national meetings
Read some recollections on the last national assessment meetings held between 14 October and 21 November 2005.
Read the reports in English.
Read the full synthesis report of the National Assessments
Read expert views on the synthesis report of the National Assessments
September-October 2005 First National Citizens’ Assessment Meeting (second national meeting)
Second meeting of the citizens in each of the 9 participating countries
Objective: National panel members studied the common issues in greater depth and drew up specific questions they wanted to submit to experts and stakeholders.
During the meeting, the citizens selected who they wanted to invite to help answer their questions. At this stage there was room for discussions that were especially relevant in the national context.
Dates of the national meetings
A summary report on each of the second national meetings can be accessed here.
6 June 2005 European Stakeholder Meeting
On 6 June 2005, the Meeting of Minds partner organisations welcomed in the premises of the King Baudouin Foundation, some 25 representatives of research, civil society, industry and public policy-making. The aim of this workshop was to create synergies between the meeting of Minds project and the various stakeholder' activities. During the meeting, participants reflected on the ECD process, the results of the Convention, and provided some clear messages to the citizens.
For a list of stakeholders attending the meeting, please click here.
A report of this first European stakeholder workshop can be downloaded here.
3-5 June 2005 First European Citizens’ Convention
First meeting of the entire European Citizens’ panel.
Objective: install the European citizens’ panel, composed of the citizens from each of the nine participating countries; invite the European citizen’s panel to consider and frame the issues at stake in the field of brain science in order to come up with a set of commonly agreed questions to be worked out during the further trajectory.
The citizens from the 9 countries got to know each other and further familiarised themselves with the process. Jointly they discussed their views about brain science departing from the cases in the information brochure on issues that are either relevant now or will shortly be so and identified sub-issues. They will jointly formulated common questions -- focusing specifically on the European dimension -- that they wanted to explore in greater depth during the following meetings. The results helped establish the agenda for the second European citizens’ convention and provided guidelines for the national citizens’ assessments in preparation for the second convention.
Location: Brussels (Belgium)
The citizens' report with primary outcomes of the First European Convention can be downloaded here.
An interim report with complete results of the First European Convention can be downladed here.
Watch a short film on the First European Citizens' Convention to get an impression of proceedings
April–May 2005 Introductory meetings
First meeting of the citizens in each of the 9 participating countries:
Objective: bring together the citizens recruited to the national citizens’ groups to prepare them for the demands ahead.
Panellists got to know each other and learnt more about the whole process. The citizens were
prepared to take part in multilingual and multicultural dialogues. Working together, they explored the subject and engaged in an initial exchange of views in preparation for the First European Convention. A starting point for all citizens involved was a common information brochure containing an introduction to the issues to be discussed, written in an accessible language. Location: <national location>
Date: one weekend in April or May 2005