Doctoral Dissertation Research: Scientizing Science Policy: Implications for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

Introduction This award will support doctoral dissertation research on the impacts of a recent decision in the federal government: To formulate science policy strategies based on scientific studies of innovation in science and technology. Implementation of this decision is referred to in the dissertation as "scientizing science policy," or SSP for brevity. The researcher will use an interdisciplinary approach to trace the emergence, history, and ongoing struggles within the SSP framework as enacted through the Office of Science and Technology Policy's Science of Science Policy (SoSP) and the National Science Foundation's Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP) programs. It will also assess the impacts of the SSP on shaping and evaluating SoSP and SciSIP programs in order to provide a better understanding of the promises, potentials, and lost opportunities presented by the SSP framework. The researcher will conduct in-depth interviews with policy and research community members who have been affiliated with or engaged in constructing the SSP framework as well as those who are outside the framework. The primary goal is to determine how the SSP framework was shaped and how it changed the landscape of US science, technology, and innovation policies and programs. Intellectual Merit Given the importance of SSP within the science, technology, and innovation policy field, understanding the historical dynamics of the SSP framework, through lens of Science and Technology Studies will offer new insights into the interactions between the realms of science, politics, and policy. It will also promote discussion of how the SSP framework creates either new opportunities or challenges for the science, technology, and innovation policy community. The results of this research should also promote further development of the SSP framework. Potential Broader Impacts Analyzing key processes of the SSP framework should offer opportunities to broaden the purview of the SSP framework to better integrate a range of social scientific perspectives. That should in turn provide resources for future SoSP and SciSIP programs; encourage the infiltration of Science and Technology Studies into SSP practices by suggesting new scientific toolkits, models, and data infrastructure for science, technology, and innovation policy; and it should contribute to the expansion of SSP research into previously excluded topics such as the assessment of non-economic societal impacts of science.