AAAS CEO Urges Policy Researchers to Restore Evidence-Based Decision Making

Posted September 23, 2015

As the global humanitarian crisis exploded out of Syria, a provocative research presentation at the Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy revealed a stagnant global humanitarian ecosystem. The presentation laid out the challenges of stimulating innovation in a system faced with refugees who stay in camps for 17 years on average. It also explored concerns about changes that might be perceived as experimenting on displaced persons.

The study, “Strengthening the Humanitarian Innovation Ecosystem,” by Howard Rush (University of Brighton) was one of 200 presentations made during the world-leading Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy. Organized by the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, the conference was held September 17-19, 2015 and featured work by more than 300 researchers from 32 countries.

In opening plenary remarks, Rush Holt, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), emphasized “science for the benefit of all” and highlighted the democratization of science as an antidote for “a war between evidence-based decision-making and ideology.”

A former congressman, Holt said, “We are losing reverence for evidence, and it’s partly because people think that science is not for them,” but rather, is a specialty accessible only to the scientific aristocracy.”

He cited climate change, the anti-vaccination movement, and the profiling of the Texas teen who was handcuffed and suspended after bringing his homemade clock to school as examples of people substituting ideology or preconceptions for evidence.

He urged conference scholars to help restore confidence in evidence-based decision-making among policy makers and the general public.

“My challenge to you is to address that first,” Holt said. “We need to “place Ph.D.s in policy-making roles and bring political savvy back to the profession.”

The Atlanta Conference offered a comprehensive look at the ways science and innovation policies are crafted, managed, and have impacts on economies, environment, and communities.

The brainchild of Public Policy Professor Diana Hicks, this was the sixth Atlanta Conference, which is held biennially.

“Our community has grown and solidified in its commitment to this field of study,” said Hicks and conference co-chair Julia Melkers, also a professor in the School of Public Policy.

Conference sponsors included Georgia Tech’s Executive Vice President for Research, Scheller College of Business, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, U.S. National Science Foundation, IEEE USA, ChalkLabs, and the Battelle Center for Science and Technology Policy at The Ohio State University.