Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-swr86 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T08:51:53.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Past, Present and Future of the Chief Scientific Advisor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James Wilsdon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

At the end of August 2014, scientists and policymakers from forty-eight countries gathered at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand to debate the science and art of scientific advice. Jointly hosted by Sir Peter Gluckman, chief scientific advisor to the PrimeMinister of NewZealand, and the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Auckland summit was the largest ever meeting of its kind, attracting science advisors, advisory bodies and academic experts fromAlbania to Zimbabwe, and a host of countries in between.

Over two days of intense discussion, participants debated structures and methods for the provision of scientific advice in emergency situations, across national and disciplinary boundaries, and on contested topics,where science, values and politics collide. The meeting ended with a call to strengthen collaboration between advisory systems, an agreement to formalize the network, and a commitment tomeet again in 2016. As Sir Peter Gluckman said afterwards: “Our goal was to start a global conversation on the practices and challenges of conveying science advice to governments…The meeting has highlighted a real thirst among practitioners to share models and lessons.”

Type
Symposium on the EU's Chief Scientific Advisor
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , September 2014 , pp. 293 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Details of the Auckland summit can be found at: http://www.globalscienceadvice.org/. The author was a member of the conference organizing committee.

2 http://www.icsu.org/news-centre/news/top-news/science-advice-to-governments-comes-of-age-at-auckland-conference

3 See e.g. Doug Parr, “The EU needs good science policy. But does that mean it needs a Chief Scientific Adviser?”, The Guardian, 29 August 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2014/aug/29/the-eu-needs-science-policy-but-does-that-mean-it-need-a-chief-scientific-adviser

4 Bijker, Wiebe E., Bal, Roland and Hendriks, Ruud, The Paradox of Scientific Authority: The Role of Scientific Advice in Democracies. (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Hulme, Mike, Exploring Climate Change through Science and in Society (London: Routledge, 2013)Google Scholar

6 See: http://www.pmcsa.org.nz/; http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/president/chief-scientific-adviser/index_en.htm

7 http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2014/aug/29/crisis-renewal-and-the-prospects-for-science-advice-in-japan

8 http://www.ipbes.net/

9 http://www.sab-2014-berlin.de/

10 S., Jasanoff (2005) Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

11 http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/17/australias-chief-scientist-tells-pms-business-adviser-to-stick-to-economics

12 http://www.icsu.org/about-icsu/about-us

13 http://www.interacademies.net/Academies.aspx

14 See e.g.https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage

15 http://www.scienceofsciencepolicy.net/reference/marburger-speech-aaas-forum-science-and-technology-policy

16 Rafols, I., Ciarli, T., van Zwanenberg, P. and Stirling, A. (2012) ‘Towards indicators for “opening up” science and technology policy’ http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/ipp2012/sites/microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk.ipp2012/files/Rafols-Ciarli-OpeningUp-FULL.pdf

17 Mulgan, G. (2013) ‘Experts and experimental government’ in Doubleday, R. and Wilsdon, J. Future Directions for Scientific Advice in Whitehall. London: Alliance for Useful Evidence/CSaP.

18 Pielke, R. Jr. (2007) The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy & Politics, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Edenhofer, O – Minx, J. ‘Mapmakers and Navigators, Facts and Values’ Science, 4 July 2014: Vol. 345 no. 6192 pp. 37-38. DOI:10.1126/science.1255998; http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6192/37.full?ijkey=Wox6TyUVE94Ts&keytype=ref#x0026;siteid=sci

20 W.J., Sutherland, D., Spiegelhalter & M., Burgman ‘Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims’, Nature 503:335, 20 November 2013 Google Scholar

21 S. O., Funtowicz, and J. R., Ravetz. “Science for the Post-Normal Age”, Futures, 25/7 September 1993, p. 739–755.Google Scholar

22 D., Sarewitz ‘How science makes environmental controversies worse’ Environmental Science & Policy, 7 (2004) 385–403 Google Scholar

23 P., Gluckman ‘The art of science advice to government’ Nature 507: 163–165, 13 March 2014.Google Scholar

24 http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/09/09/exclusive-look-post-social-science-section/

25 Wilsdon, J. ‘Too many chiefs? Experts, advisers and the disciplinary mix’ The Guardian, 15 March 2013 http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2013/mar/15/science-policy

26 Stirling, A. ‘Disciplinary dilemma: working across research silos is harder than it looks’ The Guardian, 11 June 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2014/jun/11/science-policy-research-silos-interdisciplinarity

27 A., Stirling ‘Keep it complex’ Nature 468: 1029–1031, 23/30 December 2010 Google Scholar

28 C.F., Sabel and J., Zeitlin (2012) ‘Experimentalist governance’ in Levi-Faur, D. (Ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

29 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-works-evidence-centres-for-social-policy

30 G., Mulgan ‘Experts and experimental government’ in Doubleday, R. and Wilsdon, J. Future Directions for Scientific Advice in Whitehall. London: Alliance for Useful Evidence/CSaP, April 2013 Google Scholar

31 S., Jasanoff ‘The science of science advice’ in Doubleday, R. and Wilsdon, J. Future Directions for Scientific Advice in Whitehall. London: Alliance for Useful Evidence/CSaP, April 2013Google Scholar

32 e.g. R., Doubleday & J., Wilsdon ‘Beyond the great and good’, Nature 485 : 301–302, 17 May 2012 Google Scholar

33 http://www3.grips.ac.jp/∼gist/en/events/ws20131022.html

34 http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2014/jun/23/evidence-based-union-a-new-alliance-for-science-advice-in-europe