The Agora model of innovation systems: S&T indicators for a democratic knowledge society

'Mode 2' research and the precautionary principle change innovation systems from the classical to the Agora model. In this model the actors in industr ial innovation public research and sociopolitical subsystems tend to mix to gether, and the first phase of the knowledge production processes (explorat ion, hypothesis and controversies) becomes hybrid. The 'Agora processes' -f oresight, technology assessment, socioeconomic impact evaluation and benchm arking, which ensure the proper interactions between industry, academia, go vernment and social actors - thus become major aspects of the functioning o f the innovation systems and a component of a democratic knowledge society. S&T indicators, as expertise input into the Agora processes, cannot make c laims for truth, but have the unique capability of generating significant d ebates through the criticism they stir, which can make them socially robust .