The Science of Science Policy: New Findings Workshop

American Association For The Advancement Of Science, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The National Science Foundation's Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP) program has been directed at underwriting the development of fundamental knowledge, including theories, data, tools and human capital. The SciSIP program also seeks to develop a community of experts across academic institutions and disciplines focused on SciSIP. The workshop and follow on activities are designed to contribute to both objectives. Intellectual Merit The workshop is designed to: - Provide the SciSIP program with an opportunity to have a collegial discussion of the work in progress under SciSIP's first two rounds of awards well before this work begins to appear in professional forums and publications. - Provide a common forum for researchers from the diverse set of disciplinary perspectives reflected in SciSIP's awards to exchange information about work in progress, while subjecting each approach to collegial review; - Pose questions/openings to grantees to consider how their current grants might be extended, revised, augmented to more directly consider national science and innovation policy issues; - Identify gaps in SciSIP's areas of emphasis. The attendees include approximately 40 recipients of SciSIP awards, NSF personnel, and representatives from a cross-section of governmental, academic, and non-governmental organizations. The rationale for a bridge building activity among researchers and practitioners is grounded in a corpus of research literature which documents the importance of such workshops in fostering substantive dialogue across analytical perspectives. Broader Impact Two follow on activities will highlight SciSIP's activities and the workshop's findings. The first of these is a report based on a distillation of the workshop's discussions augmented by essays by the co-PIs and distributed widely. The second is a special panel "The Current and Emerging Status of the Science of Science and Innovation Policy", devoted to the workshop's findings, and organized at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences' AAAS Forum on Science & Technology Policy.