The Evolution of Science Policy in the United States

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The size of the U.S. scientific R&D and innovation enterprise and its economic importance have grown enormously in the post-World War Two era. The complexity of the issues facing science policymakers has increased proportionately, requiring more sophisticated methods and techniques to support decision-making. Recognizing these developments, in 2005, John Marburger, science advisor to President George W. Bush, called on the members of the science and innovation policy community to apply the latest scientific methods in order to make their research more rigorous and systematic. In response, the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has long been a focus such work, established the Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP) program. SciSIP builds on NSF's fifty-plus year history of science and innovation policy studies. Beginning in the mid-1960s, NSF established programs aimed at cultivating science policy research and teaching at academic institutions. Later, in the mid-1970s, it created a Division of Policy Research and Analysis (PRA) to conduct and support studies of the social returns to R&D. The results of PRA and related programs provide an intellectual background for the practice of science and innovation policy. This project strengthens the management and direction of the SciSIP program and its impact by providing a better understanding of its genesis and broader scientific context. It is also helping to build a stronger foundation for both graduate and undergraduate education in science and innovation policy. Drawing on unpublished archival materials, published sources, interviews and correspondence, this project examines the range of past science and innovation policy research programs, their strengths and weaknesses, and their contributions to policy and to the development of the field. The project is looking at how NSF and other agencies laid the foundations of U.S. science and innovation policy research, how institutional support was used to seed academic science policy programs and build capacity both inside and outside of the federal government, and finally, how the advent of SciSIP has affected the course of science and innovation policy research.