Stakeholder involvement is an essential part of the study to gather information they may have and / or views and opinions. This will be a two-way dialogue. On the one hand the stakeholders can receive important information about the study and its results and have the opportunity to comment on this information. On the other, stakeholders will be asked to participate in the information collection part of the study.
Given that the potential number of stakeholders is large, we need to find an efficient, balanced and effective way of engaging people. Whilst workshops will be very useful in this regard, their suitability to gathering information is of limited value. We propose therefore to circulate questionnaires – one at the study outset regarding the product definition, markets and test standards, and the other for detailed product data.
The object of the workshops is to give stakeholders opportunities to give their views, to secure consensus regarding particular issues, and to include them in the study and in the final report. Space limitations may force us to limit numbers wishing to attend but we plan to publish on this site the proceedings of each workshop for the benefit of all interested stakeholders.
We anticipate that there will be three workshops during the study. The 3rd workshop meeting has been scheduled for 14 October 2008.