BONUS EPISODE - Science for Policy Podcast with Prof Remi Quirion

Prof Remi Quirion on the languages of global science advice

The emergence of English as the dominant international language of science has some significant downsides. As part of his presidency of the International Network for Governmental Science Advice, Professor Rémi Quirion of Québec has made it his mission to broaden our linguistic outlook.

"A few years back, people said ‘of course science advice is all in English’. But when we started to change that, we suddenly found new ways to speak to high-level policy makers, for instance in French-speaking Africa."

EPISODE 7 - Cities as solutions - Science advice where we live

Cities are increasingly the key implementer of international, national, and local policy. They are where policy and theory intersect directly with people’s lives. What are the challenges encountered, and the practical solutions deployed, at the ‘pointy end’ of the Sustainable Development Goals?

• Prof Anna Davies Trinity, Centre for Smart and Sustainable Cities
• Prof Edgar Pieterse, African Centre for Cities
• Ms Alice Charles, World Economic Forum Geneva
• Mr John Mauro, City of Port Townsend, Washington
• Prof Marie-Christine Therrien, Cité-ID Liv­ing Lab

EPISODE 6 - Fast & Fair Societal Transformation: Social science & humanities in Science Advice

Social science and the humanities is often forgotten or sidelined when policymakers seek advice. Yet these are a valuable resource in not only understanding the 'what' but also the 'why' and 'how' of a given policy response - particularly when it comes to global-level challenges, such as the SDGs or climate change.

• Dr Jean Lebel, International Development Research Centre
• Prof Steven Hoffman, Director of the Global Strategy Lab
• Prof Elizabeth Jelin, Senior Researcher at CONICET
• Dr Montira Pongsiri, Save the Children, Member of the SEA SAN
• Prof Ilona Otto, Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change

EPISODE 5 - The logic of our feelings - Balancing 'Facts' and 'Values' in policymaking

Science does not exist in a vacuum - how science is seen, how its conclusions are perceived, and how readily it is utilised by policymakers, exists in a complex dynamic with the culture, values and collective emotions of the public. Science Advice cannot divorce itself from this fact, and must consider how to make space for values in the work it does.

• A/Prof Manuela Fernández Pinto, Universidad de los Andes
• A/Prof Heather Douglas, Michigan State University
• Mr David Mair, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
• Prof Dr Asma Ismail, Academy of Sciences Malaysia

EPISODE 4 - Interrogating Foresight: Science advice and predicting the future

Is Strategic Foresight just about predicting the future? How can foresight be accomplished in a systematic and informed way that can actually help policymakers? And what are such things as 'Radical Incrementalism', 'Constructive Ambiguity', and 'Focus Contextualism'?

• Dr Jeff Kinder, Institute on Governance
• President Francisco Sagasti, Academic and Former President of Peru
• Ms Jeanette Kwek, Centre for Strategic Futures, Singapore
• Dr Claire A. Nelson, The Future Forum
• Dr Martin Müller, Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator

EPISODE 3 - Science Advice from the frontline - Salim Abdool Karim

What was it like to lead a country's science advice committee as an unknown disease became a pandemic? Prof Salim Abdool Karim is one of the world's best known epidemiologists and, in the early stages of the pandemic, he was Chair of the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19...

EPISODE 2 - Is the paradigm shifting? Rethinking our models

Science advice is built on a foundation of established models of knowledge production, policy-making and the science-policy-society relationship. But all of these are currently in flux. How do we provide advice in a context when foundational assumptions are changing?

• Prof Ian Goldin - Oxford Martin School
• Ms Armine Yalnizyan - Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers
• Mr Achim Steiner - Administrator of the UN Development Programme
• Elder Nii Gaani Aki Inini, Dr. Dave Courchene - Knowledge Keeper of the Anishnaabe Nation

EPISODE 1 - A cacophony of evidence - Daniel Sarewitz and Sabina Leonelli

Even before the pandemic, the role that knowledge and experts played in our democracies was a complicated one. COVID-19 supercharged the visibility of science-policy interfaces, and amplified the challenges. Sabina Leonelli leads a fabulously wide-ranging discussion with respected STI scholar, Daniel Sarewitz, on the past and future of the science/policy interactions upon which our societies rely.

• Prof Daniel Sarewitz, Emeritus Professor, Arizona State University
• Prof Sabina Leonelli, Philosophy and History of Science, University of Exeter