This project aimed to increase awareness among policy-makers and the public of a core ISC value: science as a global public good.
Public trust in science remains strong – but in an increasingly fragmented and polarized political and media environment, it is critically important for scientists to defend this fragile, vital idea.
This project aims to promote the importance of science as a global public good, focusing on policy-makers and the general public.
Misleading information now spreads more easily than ever. This can feed dangerous individual and governmental decisions on issues like the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. And more broadly, it can promote science denialism, sow doubt about the need for science in general, and threaten progress toward greater use of scientific evidence to inform decision-making.
This problem affects every scientific field and all scientific communities around the world. Finding solutions could not be more important: our future health and survival depend on the adoption of policies with a sound scientific basis.
Promoting evidence-based policy-making is a core ISC goal. To achieve this, we need to interrogate our understanding of how perceptions of science inform policy and, in turn, enable institutions to support the emerging learning.
Understanding scientific engagement
This workstream sough to clarify the concepts commonly used around scientific literacy, science education and perceptions of science, to describe the theoretical framing and empirical evidence underpinning the assumptions behind them. It also examined the links between policy and scientific literacy based on the latest research.
Enabling scientific engagement
This workstream has been designed to support the ISC membership to respond to the challenges facing science engagement and those perceptions of science which undermine evidence based policy, international collaboration and, ultimately, science for sustainability.
The programme sought to respond to the threats scientists face from ‘fringe’ groups, scientific nationalism, conspiracy theorists and populism.
Key milestones:
Extending scientific engagement
The scientific community has an obligation to explain and champion the role of science in all decisions that affect society. This workstream articulated the partnerships ISC developed with media to engage publics in the value of science.
As part of this workstream, two project were completed:
An Expert Panel consists of 12 researchers, commentators and scientists who have made a significant contribution to the discourse on scientific literacy or whose work is well positioned to make a contribution to understanding public perceptions of science. They will be engaged as resource people for the programme.
Robert Lepenies served as a special advisor to the project.
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