Institutionalizing Science Advice - International Perspectives

Activity: Talks and presentationsGuest lecturers

Description

Invited plenary panel presentation

Everyone will agree that it is in the public interest to base policy-making on the best evidence available - and that scientific knowledge is the place to go. This is particularly true when it comes to difficult decisions, such as school closures, economic lockdowns, and testing strategies, that affect the vast majority of the population and on rather short notice. Yet while most countries in Europe have been successful thus far in "flattening the curve", the COVID-19 pandemic has helped to sharply highlight the intricate relationship between science and policy-making. The questions are not new, but they are now posed with new urgency: how to inform policy makers about "evidence" in a dynamic situation where new scientific discoveries quickly change what seems to be known (about the pandemic)? And how to translate this shaky knowledge into decision-making in a way that is in accordance with democratic legitimization, social prosperity, and public health?

Discussants

David Budtz-Pedersen (Aalborg University)
Anne Glover (Aberdeen University) (invited)
Katharina T. Paul (Vienna University)
Claudio Radaelli (University College London)
Thomas Starlinger (Präsidentschaftskanzlei)

Chair: Thomas König
Period27 Jun 2020
Held atAustrian Institute for Advanced Studies, Austria
Degree of RecognitionInternational