Keynote: The role of science and of science funders in the time of the COVID 19 crisis

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funders have enormous power to influence the direction of science. What tools do you have: co-funding, coordinated funding, ensuring a balance of efforts using all the knowledge disciplines by finding ways to support transdisciplinary research. These are all easy things to say and make a lot of sense. But the reality is that with few exceptions this does not occur.… Read More

[VIDEO] Dietram Scheufele – How not to lose the COVID Communication War – Science Communication

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INGSA/Koi Tū EXCLUSIVE COVID-19 is the perfect storm for Science Communication, combining urgency, fast-evolving information, a high level of uncertainty, and truly global scope. What is the role, risks and pitfalls for Communication during the crisis

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Good information is required for good decision making: Why transdisciplinarity matters

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INGSA/Koi Tū EXCLUSIVE The science we need for good public policy is by necessity a transdisciplinary science. In countries such as Germany, natural scientists were joined from the outset in dealing with the pandemic by experts from social sciences and even normative disciplines like philosophical ethics. This transparent inclusivity of a range of perspectives was not, however, universal.

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Special Reports – ‘The Future is Now’ – ‘Social Cohesion’ – ‘NZ’s Place in the World’

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Koi Tū SPECIAL REPORTS Two reports on how New Zealand and the world can emerge from the COVID pandemic with a fairer, happier and more resilient society. These papers are instructive for all countries as they turn to face what the future could look like.

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Build a science advice system fit for global crises

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Coronavirus has revealed both the importance and limitations of current approaches, says Peter Gluckman

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the complex interface been scientific evidence, experts, public institutions, the public, policymakers, diplomats and politicians. It has exposed very different responses in different jurisdictions and demonstrates the challenges of decision-making when the evidence is incomplete but decisions are urgent. … Read More

How epidemics change us

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INGSA/Koi Tū EXCLUSIVE As governments around the world try to contain the pandemic of Covid-19, they often draw on experiences of past epidemics. The swift and (so far) successful response of Hong Kong and Singapore, despite their proximity to the origin of pandemic in Hubei, China, has been attributed to the living memory of the 2003 epidemic of SARS. SARS left behavioural change and infection control practices that are now proving useful against Covid-19.

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Mathematical models, scientific responsibility and the benefits of transdisciplinarity in the times of crisis

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INGSA/Koi Tū EXCLUSIVE The development of new models, as well as refinement of existing ones as new data is collected, are part of normal science. Yet, while under regular conditions models are first validated within the scientific community and testing of the assumptions made, before their integration into the cannon. But these discussions are now taking place in the public – on social and mainstream media.

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Social cohesion at a time of social distancing?

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INGSA/Koi Tū EXCLUSIVE We are living in an extraordinary time.  The pandemic now gripping the planet – massive and urgent in itself – is also the latest and most significant challenge among those already taking hold in many societies. An unmistakable sense of 21st Century anomie stands in stark contrast to the naïve optimism of the last few decades.

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Informed Futures, the virus and the future

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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into stark focus the interaction between science, experts, society, policy making and politics. Across the world this interaction is playing out in different strategies and decisions. The pandemic continues towards a potentially horrific crescendo for many countries. In this context, both for the immediate, and particularly for the longer term (including future pandemics and other crises), it will be important to understand and learn from these varied interactions. – Sir Peter Gluckman… Read More