by Hanbit Lee
On March 5, 2026, SPAN partnered with the Sustainable Innovation Challenge (SIC) and Prof. Sascha Nick to host an Academic Citizens’ Assembly (ACA) at EPFL’s Rolex Learning Center. Forty participants deliberated on the question: “Under which conditions will technology contribute to a better society?”
Through small-group deliberation, structured facilitation, and anonymous voting, , participants engaged with themes of governance, power, democracy, and the role of technology in provisioning systems like housing, energy, and mobility. The assembly produced 22 proposals, of which 11 were accepted by the participants. When considered together, the accepted proposals show that participants placed more trust in democratic capacity, transparency, public-interest governance, and social restructuring than in purely technological fixes. A full report of the assembly, including all proposals and voting results, is available here.
After the assembly, SPAN hosted a science communication workshop focused on turning voted-on proposals into a policy brief that could be distributed to relevant stakeholders. The workshop covered the structure of a policy brief (problem statement, evidence summary, policy options, clear recommendation), audience framing, and how to translate a one-sentence ACA proposal (e.g., “increase cooperative housing”) into a specific policy ask: who does what, at which level of government, with what budget or legal mechanism.
In a hands-on exercise, participants chose one of the 11 accepted proposals and drafted a one-page policy brief outline in small groups. SPAN facilitators gave real-time feedback, helping sharpen problem statements and identify concrete target actors. By the end, every group had a working outline, and several participants requested follow-up coaching to complete full briefs. The workshop bridged the gap between deliberative democracy and real-world policy impact – turning voted proposals from the academic citizen’s assembly into the first drafts of actionable, decision-maker-ready documents.
