tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/office-of-science-and-technology-policy-34577/articlesOffice of Science and Technology Policy – The Conversation2022-10-28T12:30:49Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1920032022-10-28T12:30:49Z2022-10-28T12:30:49ZThe White House’s ‘AI Bill of Rights’ outlines five principles to make artificial intelligence safer, more transparent and less discriminatory<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492180/original/file-20221027-21-2gwe3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=186%2C71%2C4465%2C2850&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many AI algorithms, like facial recognition software, have been shown to be discriminatory to people of color.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mature-african-man-scanning-his-face-with-mobile-royalty-free-image/1209011777?phrase=facial%20recognition%20black%20person&adppopup=true">Prostock-Studio/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the important and ever-increasing role of artificial intelligence in many parts of modern society, there is very little policy or regulation governing the development and use of AI systems in the U.S. Tech companies have largely been left to regulate themselves in this arena, potentially leading to decisions and situations that have garnered criticism. </p>
<p>Google <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/google-timnit-gebru-ai-what-really-happened/">fired an employee</a> who publicly raised concerns over how a certain type of AI can contribute to <a href="https://www.washington.edu/news/2021/03/10/large-computer-language-models-carry-environmental-social-risks/">environmental and social problems</a>. Other AI companies have developed products that are used by organizations <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/01/30/lapd-palantir-data-driven-policing/">like the Los Angeles Police Department</a> where they have been shown to <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/17/1005396/predictive-policing-algorithms-racist-dismantled-machine-learning-bias-criminal-justice/">bolster existing racially biased policies</a>. </p>
<p>There are some government <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-519sp">recommendations</a> and <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2021/04/aiming-truth-fairness-equity-your-companys-use-ai">guidance</a> regarding AI use. But in early October 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy added to federal guidance in a big way by releasing the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/">Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights</a>. </p>
<p>The Office of Science and Technology says that the protections outlined in the document should be applied to all automated systems. The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/">blueprint</a> spells out “five principles that should guide the design, use, and deployment of automated systems to protect the American public in the age of artificial intelligence.” The hope is that this document can act as a guide to help prevent AI systems from limiting the rights of U.S. residents. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5zZFOikAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">As a computer scientist</a> who studies the ways people interact with AI systems – and in particular how anti-Blackness mediates those interactions – I find this guide a step in the right direction, even though it has some holes and is not enforceable.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492136/original/file-20221027-37192-cl732q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people sitting in chairs with one person raising their hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492136/original/file-20221027-37192-cl732q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492136/original/file-20221027-37192-cl732q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492136/original/file-20221027-37192-cl732q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492136/original/file-20221027-37192-cl732q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492136/original/file-20221027-37192-cl732q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492136/original/file-20221027-37192-cl732q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492136/original/file-20221027-37192-cl732q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">It is critically important to include feedback from the people who are going to to be most affected by an AI system – especially marginalized communities – during development.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/group-of-people-sitting-during-a-meeting-royalty-free-image/1423632924?phrase=diverse%20group%20feedback&adppopup=true">FilippoBacci/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Improving systems for all</h2>
<p>The first two principles aim to address the safety and effectiveness of AI systems as well as the major risk of AI furthering discrimination.</p>
<p>To improve the safety and effectiveness of AI, the first principle suggests that AI systems should be developed not only by experts, but also with direct input from the people and communities who will use and be affected by the systems. Exploited and marginalized communities are often left to deal with the consequences of AI systems <a href="https://detroitcommunitytech.org/?q=datajustice">without having much say in their development</a>. Research has shown that <a href="https://morethancode.cc/2018/08/20/morethancode-full-report.html">direct and genuine community involvement in the development process is important</a> for deploying technologies that have a positive and lasting impact on those communities.</p>
<p>The second principle focuses on the <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/video/the-new-jim-code-reimagining-the-default-settings-of-technology-society/">known problem of algorithmic discrimination</a> within AI systems. A well-known example of this problem is how <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-technology-business-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-b920d945a6a13db1e1aee44d91475205">mortgage approval algorithms discriminate against minorities</a>. The document asks for companies to develop AI systems that do not treat people differently based on their race, sex or other <a href="https://www.senate.ca.gov/content/protected-classes">protected class status</a>. It suggests companies employ tools such as equity assessments that can help assess how an AI system may impact members of exploited and marginalized communities.</p>
<p>These first two principles address big issues of bias and fairness found in AI development and use.</p>
<h2>Privacy, transparency and control</h2>
<p>The final three principles outline ways to give people more control when interacting with AI systems. </p>
<p>The third principle is on data privacy. It seeks to ensure that people have more say about how their data is used and are protected from abusive data practices. This section aims to address situations where, for example, companies use <a href="https://www.deceptive.design/">deceptive design</a> to manipulate users into <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/16/22333506/california-bans-dark-patterns-opt-out-selling-data">giving away their data</a>. The blueprint calls for practices like not taking a person’s data unless they consent to it and asking in a way that is understandable to that person.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492128/original/file-20221027-13-naukmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A speaker sitting on a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492128/original/file-20221027-13-naukmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492128/original/file-20221027-13-naukmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492128/original/file-20221027-13-naukmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492128/original/file-20221027-13-naukmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492128/original/file-20221027-13-naukmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492128/original/file-20221027-13-naukmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492128/original/file-20221027-13-naukmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Smart speakers have been caught collecting and storing conversations without users’ knowledge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/digital-background-smart-assistant-royalty-free-image/1320780003">Olemedia/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The next principle focuses on “notice and explanation.” It highlights the importance of transparency – people should know how an AI system is being used as well as the ways in which an AI contributes to outcomes that might affect them. Take, for example the New York City Administration for Child Services. Research has shown that the agency uses <a href="https://doi.org/10.52214/cjrl.v11i4.8741">outsourced AI systems to predict child maltreatment</a>, systems that most people don’t realize are being used, even when they are being investigated.</p>
<p>The AI Bill of Rights provides a guideline that people in New York in this example who are affected by the AI systems in use should be notified that an AI was involved and have access to an explanation of what the AI did. Research has shown that building transparency into AI systems can <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/06/building-transparency-into-ai-projects">reduce the risk of errors or misuse</a>.</p>
<p>The last principle of the AI Bill of Rights outlines a framework for human alternatives, consideration and feedback. The section specifies that people should be able to opt out of the use of AI or other automated systems in favor of a human alternative where reasonable. </p>
<p>As an example of how these last two principles might work together, take the case of someone applying for a mortgage. They would be informed if an AI algorithm was used to consider their application and would have the option of opting out of that AI use in favor of an actual person.</p>
<h2>Smart guidelines, no enforceability</h2>
<p>The five principles laid out in the AI Bill of Rights address many of the issues scholars have raised over the design and use of AI. Nonetheless, this is a nonbinding document and not currently enforceable. </p>
<p>It may be too much to hope that industry and government agencies will put these ideas to use in the exact ways the White House urges. If the ongoing regulatory battle over data privacy offers any guidance, tech companies will <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/05/18/private-sector-online-privacy-health-apps-data/">continue to push for self-regulation</a>.</p>
<p>One other issue that I see within the AI Bill of Rights is that it fails to directly call out <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/combahee-river-collective-statement-1977/">systems of oppression</a> – like <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-systemic-racism-and-institutional-racism-131152">racism</a> or sexism – and how they can influence the use and development of AI. For example, studies have shown that inaccurate assumptions built into AI algorithms used in health care have led to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/25/healthcare-algorithm-racial-biases-optum">worse care for Black patients</a>. I have argued that anti-Black racism should be <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9606203">directly addressed when developing AI systems</a>. While the AI Bill of Rights addresses ideas of bias and fairness, the lack of focus on systems of oppression is a notable hole and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3531146.3533157">known issue within AI development</a>.</p>
<p>Despite these shortcomings, this blueprint could be a positive step toward better AI systems, and maybe the first step toward regulation. A document such as this one, even if not policy, can be a powerful reference for people advocating for changes in the way an organization develops and uses AI systems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Dancy receives funding from the National Science Foundation for his work on AI. </span></em></p>Many AI algorithms, like facial recognition software, have been shown to be discriminatory to people of color, especially those who are Black.Christopher Dancy, Associate Professor of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1882732022-10-06T12:16:22Z2022-10-06T12:16:22ZI was a presidential science adviser – here are the many challenges Arati Prabhakar faces as she takes over President Biden’s science policy office<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487895/original/file-20221003-24-x27gp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=76%2C0%2C4954%2C3039&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. science policy can support anything from basic research to late-stage applications. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-picture-of-microscope-in-the-laboratory-royalty-free-image/1220985719?phrase=laboratory%20scientist&adppopup=true">Anchalee Phanmaha/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/directors-office/">Arati Prabhakar has been sworn in</a> as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and assistant to the president for science and technology after <a href="https://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2022/09/23/dr-arati-prabhakar-confirmed-to-top-white-house-science-job-451055/">being confirmed by the U.S. Senate</a>, two months following her <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01688-x">nomination by President Joe Biden</a>. As the director of OSTP and assistant to the president, she now serves as the confidential science adviser to the president and is also accountable to Congress. Prabhakar is both the first woman and first person of color to hold this role. </p>
<p>I had the pleasure of getting to know Prabhakar during the Clinton administration when she was the director of the National Institute for Standards and Technology and I was director of the National Science Foundation. In 1998, President Bill Clinton selected me to be his <a href="https://www.aip.org/fyi/1998/jack-gibbons-retires-neal-lane-ostp-rita-colwell-nsf">director of OSTP and assistant to the president for science and technology</a>, a position I held until the end of the administration in 2001. </p>
<p>These positions at the National Science Foundation and Office of Science Technology and Policy gave me different perspectives on how the federal government carries out its multiple complicated roles supporting science and technology, as well as a sense of some of the challenges Prabhakar faces. By focusing on cooperation among federal agencies and the White House offices in addressing the president’s goals, she can help ensure that the U.S. science and technology enterprise rises to the many difficulties the country faces today.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487897/original/file-20221003-26-r8nx3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white-haired man in a suit and sunglasses sits at a desk surrounded by people, with a document standing on the desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487897/original/file-20221003-26-r8nx3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487897/original/file-20221003-26-r8nx3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487897/original/file-20221003-26-r8nx3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487897/original/file-20221003-26-r8nx3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487897/original/file-20221003-26-r8nx3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487897/original/file-20221003-26-r8nx3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487897/original/file-20221003-26-r8nx3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law in August 2022, providing funding for semiconductor manufacturing and scientific research in the U.S. to compete with China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Biden/b3a77680ee134f049241a7582be319d0/photo?Query=biden%20science%20chips&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=82&currentItemNo=1">AP/Evan Vucci</a></span>
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<h2>Eyes on innovation</h2>
<p>Born in India, Prabhakar immigrated to the U.S. in the 1960s, obtained a doctorate in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology and has had a distinguished career in both government and industry. She has held leadership positions in several technology and venture capital companies. Her most recent federal appointment was as <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2022/06/21/biden-picks-former-darpa-director-prabhakar-as-next-science-adviser/">director of the Defense Advanced Project Agency</a>, or DARPA, under Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Today, the U.S. faces a number of existential challenges ranging from climate change to future pandemics, to <a href="https://theconversation.com/china-us-tensions-how-global-trade-began-splitting-into-two-blocs-188380">competition from China</a>, to social inequality – all of which will require harnessing the power of science, technology and innovation. In <a href="https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/1F2858BD-9A09-4ED1-8738-62533BF502D3">Prabhakar’s Senate testimony</a>, she described how the OSTP is the only place in the federal government that focuses on the overall health and global standing of U.S. science and technology capability. The full spectrum of exploration, discovery and implementation fall under her purview – from very basic, fundamental research to putting technological innovations into the market. </p>
<p>Biden shares this <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/a-letter-to-dr-eric-s-lander-the-presidents-science-advisor-and-nominee-as-director-of-the-office-of-science-and-technology-policy/">belief in the vital role of science and innovation</a>, as does Congress. The recently passed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act promotes general research and development and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-semiconductor-an-electrical-engineer-explains-how-these-critical-electronic-components-work-and-how-they-are-made-188337">semiconductor manufacturing capability</a>, specifically as a response to the rapid rise of Chinese science, technology and innovation.</p>
<h2>Collaboration is critical</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487898/original/file-20221003-1006-2yavhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white-haired woman smiles in a formal portrait with an American flag in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487898/original/file-20221003-1006-2yavhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487898/original/file-20221003-1006-2yavhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487898/original/file-20221003-1006-2yavhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487898/original/file-20221003-1006-2yavhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487898/original/file-20221003-1006-2yavhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487898/original/file-20221003-1006-2yavhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487898/original/file-20221003-1006-2yavhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Arati Prabhakar has held leadership positions in DARPA, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology and a number of private companies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dr._Arati_Prabhakar_by_Sun_L._Vega,_2015.jpg#/media/File:Dr._Arati_Prabhakar_by_Sun_L._Vega,_2015.jpg">DARPA</a></span>
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<p>No single U.S. executive department or agency alone can accomplish the president’s goals. The U.S. system is enormously complicated; a multitude of agencies support research and development, as well as applications of science and technology. For example, many departments and agencies were instrumental in developing and launching the internet, which many people might take for granted today. </p>
<p>Science agencies interact with dozens of White House offices. OSTP must work well with all these agencies and offices of the White House, a place where effectiveness depends on establishing a balance between assertiveness and cooperation with other players.</p>
<p>A big challenge for Prabhakar – and an issue on the minds of many leaders in science and technology – will be assisting and coordinating the efforts of many research agencies to achieve national goals while protecting and strengthening their traditional roles in supporting basic <a href="https://sciencetechaction.org/">research in science and engineering</a>. This will require earning the trust and respect of the heads of the various agencies and her colleagues in the White House and making sure her voice is heard in order to achieve the goals laid out by the president and Congress.</p>
<h2>Balancing basic research with applications</h2>
<p>I very much agree with Prabhakar that the U.S. could benefit greatly from investments in both fundamental research as well as in technology development, but trade-offs will inevitably be made within that broad scope of federal responsibilities.</p>
<p>There is growing concern within the research community that, given the recent focus of Congress and the Biden administration on <a href="https://theconversation.com/arpa-h-high-risk-high-reward-health-research-is-the-mandate-of-new-billion-dollar-us-agency-190732">innovation and the translation of scientific discoveries</a> into real-world applications, <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/data-check-us-government-share-basic-research-funding-falls-below-50">fundamental research is likely to lose support</a>. Many worry this could <a href="https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2020/09/26/us_science_funding_is_increasingly_biased_against_basic_science.html#!">harm the United States’ long-standing supremacy in science</a>.</p>
<p>Prabhakar has devoted her career to creating solutions from the scientific advances that come from basic research done in universities, national laboratories and in industry. She is well aware that sound judgment, teamwork and a degree of assertiveness will be needed to advance the president’s research, development and innovation initiatives while ensuring policymakers do not neglect fundamental research.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487903/original/file-20221003-22-kzosjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People in business attire sit around a long conference table with microphones placed above them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487903/original/file-20221003-22-kzosjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487903/original/file-20221003-22-kzosjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487903/original/file-20221003-22-kzosjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487903/original/file-20221003-22-kzosjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487903/original/file-20221003-22-kzosjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487903/original/file-20221003-22-kzosjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487903/original/file-20221003-22-kzosjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prabhakar is now a member of Biden’s Cabinet and will play a central role in facilitating fruitful relationships between the many players in science and technology.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Biden/5ab98f471e754a3c9065cc3d251cff64/photo?Query=Biden%20Cabinet%20meeting&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=227&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to be effective</h2>
<p>With so many players involved, cooperation is key.</p>
<p>As OSTP director, Prabhakar has the task of facilitating effective cooperation among the many federal scientific, health and regulatory agencies. Cooperation among federal agencies and companies, particularly in areas of new technologies, is critically important for accelerating the pace of translation of discoveries to applications, but that has consistently been hard to manage.</p>
<p>The OSTP director can also play an important role in facilitating the relationships between industry and government, and there are currently both a commitment and substantial funding from both sides to support this goal. The CHIPS and Science Act calls for the government to invest US$10 billion to create 20 new “<a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11925">regional technology and innovation hubs</a>” in locations that are not currently centers of technology. I believe Prabhakar’s experience in DARPA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the private sector will allow her to deftly promote cooperation.</p>
<p>Another particularly important challenge every OSTP director faces is in helping <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/">prepare the annual budget</a> request. The budget consists of thousands of lines disbursing funding for executive departments and agencies. While the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/">Office of Management and Budget</a> plays the lead role in this process, the director of OSTP is expected to work with the director of the OMB and many other White House advisers to ensure that the president’s priorities in science and technology are addressed. </p>
<p>Since the president’s initiatives will involve many federal agencies, pulling together all the necessary information for the budget is going to be particularly challenging and will require considerable cooperation between agencies. It is critical that Prabhakar develop a close working relationship with the OMB to make sure the agencies get what they need.</p>
<p>The U.S. is facing huge challenges – from pandemics to climate change to competition with China – that all require massive national efforts in science and technology. Arati Prabhakar has devoted her career to advancing U.S. innovation and competitiveness in science and technology. I believe she will do an excellent job in her new role. A final attribute she brings to the table is the fact that, as an immigrant, she sets an example for the thousands of <a href="https://www.nber.org/digest/nov16/immigrants-play-key-role-stem-fields">women and men coming to the U.S. to study science, engineering and technology</a>. It is vitally important that the U.S. continue to be a magnet for talent from all over the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neal Lane receives funding from federal agencies for decades before joining the Clinton Administration in 1993. He also has served on advisory and study committees for federal agencies and such organizations as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy. He worked with the new science advisor Arati Prabhakar when she was NIST director and Lane was NSF director</span></em></p>The director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy plays a critical role in achieving the president’s science goals. Facilitating cooperation among the dozens of research agencies is key.Neal Lane, Emeritus Professor of Science and Technology Policy and Physics and Astronomy, Rice UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1012332018-08-17T10:15:15Z2018-08-17T10:15:15ZDr. Droegemeier goes to Washington? What could happen when a respected scientist joins Trump’s White House<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231959/original/file-20180814-2912-g07yc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's a political job, not a scientific one.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/slack12/4551210288">slack12</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Leaders of the scientific community – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/493007a">most of whom</a> <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2010/12/lab_politics.html">are also Democrats</a> – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau9602">voiced</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/science/trump-droegemeier-science-adviser.html">relief</a> when the Trump administration <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/three-nominations-sent-senate-today-4/">nominated</a> Kelvin Droegemeier to direct the White House Office of Science and Technology last August. Four months later, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00015-1">Droegemeier has been confirmed</a> by the Senate, and he can finally step <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/">into a position</a> that has been <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2018/08/10/ostp-droegemeier-health-research/">leaderless since Trump assumed office</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231960/original/file-20180814-2921-1x2qdqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231960/original/file-20180814-2921-1x2qdqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231960/original/file-20180814-2921-1x2qdqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231960/original/file-20180814-2921-1x2qdqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231960/original/file-20180814-2921-1x2qdqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231960/original/file-20180814-2921-1x2qdqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231960/original/file-20180814-2921-1x2qdqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231960/original/file-20180814-2921-1x2qdqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kelvin Droegemeier has a fine line to walk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Fallin-Charitable-Kick-Off/18722ad967194ccabce9ed95fede292b/2/0">AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki</a></span>
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<p>Droegemeier, a <a href="https://www.aip.org/fyi/2018/trump-picks-meteorologist-kelvin-droegemeier-lead-white-house-science-office">well-respected meteorologist</a> specializing in severe weather such as thunderstorms, has also served <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/members/current_members/droegemeier.jsp">on the advisory board of the U.S. National Science Foundation</a>. He will bring a <a href="https://vpr-norman.ou.edu/users/kelvin-droegemeier">mainstream scientific voice</a> into an administration that is often portrayed as somewhere between apathetic and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.355.6331.1246">hostile about matters relating to science</a>.</p>
<p>But those who expect Droegemeier to provide any sort of counterweight to administration policies will likely be disappointed. The recent departures of <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/james-mattis-resignation-letter-quoting-lincoln-signs-off-as-secretary-of-defense/">Defense Secretary James Mattis</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-john-kelly-exit-interview-20181230-story.html">White House Chief of Staff John Kelly</a> tell the tale, yet again, of the fate of those who push back against this president, however tough-minded they may be. Perhaps more importantly, a historical perspective on presidential science advising shows that the advisers’ effectiveness is determined not by how much they know, but by how closely they are in step with the political priorities of the administration they serve.</p>
<h2>Science advisers are on the team</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/american-science-policy-since-world-war-ii/">role of presidential science adviser was formalized</a> in the shadow of the Sputnik launch, when President Eisenhower named MIT president James R. Killian to the newly created post of “special assistant to the president for science and technology” in November 1957. Killian, who in fact was not a scientist but had a mere bachelor’s degree in management, was expected not only to lend expertise to the White House but, according to a <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/11/08/84916858.pdf">New York Times article</a> at the time, to “allay public fears concerning scientific achievements by the Soviet Union.”</p>
<p>Killian helped to oversee a rapid expansion of government investment in science, an agenda that satisfied both his scientific colleagues and the political aims of President Eisenhower. But such alignment of science advice and presidential politics is far from inevitable.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232357/original/file-20180816-2924-19doysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232357/original/file-20180816-2924-19doysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232357/original/file-20180816-2924-19doysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232357/original/file-20180816-2924-19doysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232357/original/file-20180816-2924-19doysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232357/original/file-20180816-2924-19doysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232357/original/file-20180816-2924-19doysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232357/original/file-20180816-2924-19doysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jerome Wiesner had a seat at the table (second from left) in the Kennedy White House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-DC-USA-APHS418409-President-John-F-/85e46e605dd540348b5d879e55b414b7/4/0">AP Photo/Byron Rollins</a></span>
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<p>Several years later, President Kennedy’s science adviser, Jerome Wiesner, <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19940030132.pdf">advised against</a> sending a man to the moon, counsel that was decisively rejected, with momentous historical consequences. A decade later, President Nixon got so fed up with advice he was getting on missile defense and supersonic transport that in 1973 he <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674666566">eliminated the science adviser post</a>.</p>
<p>With the support of Congress, Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/american-science-policy-since-world-war-ii/">reestablished the position of science adviser</a> in 1976, as head of a newly created Office of Science and Technology Policy. But the age of innocence was over, and only the most naïve observers could continue to believe that presidential science advice could somehow be held separate from national politics.</p>
<p>Under President Reagan, science adviser George Keyworth II, a nuclear physicist, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3898-2_5">aggressively advocated</a> for the president’s highly controversial “star wars” missile defense system and notably <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/23/nyregion/reagan-science-adviser-says-press-seeks-to-demolish-us.html">attacked the news media</a> as “a narrow fringe element on the far left of our society” because of alleged bias against administration policies.</p>
<p>More recently, President Obama’s science adviser, John Holdren, also a physicist, was an <a href="https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/science-adviser-lists-goals-on-climate-energy/">outspoken advocate</a> for the president’s energy and environmental policies. In their times, <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Way-Out-There-In-the-Blue/Frances-FitzGerald/9780743200233">Keyworth</a> <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2009/01/obamas-political-science-adviser-jonathan-h-adler/">and</a> <a href="https://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/dr-holdrens-ice-age-tidal-wave/">Holdren</a> were both subjected to energetic critique from those in politics and the media who disagreed with the positions that each advanced.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232358/original/file-20180816-2891-r50pd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232358/original/file-20180816-2891-r50pd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232358/original/file-20180816-2891-r50pd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232358/original/file-20180816-2891-r50pd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232358/original/file-20180816-2891-r50pd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232358/original/file-20180816-2891-r50pd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232358/original/file-20180816-2891-r50pd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232358/original/file-20180816-2891-r50pd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Marburger (left) knew his job was to back up the president.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Bush-/90b5892a92d4452e8e1259c9f6b7a1a7/35/0">AP Photo/White House, Chris Greenberg</a></span>
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<p>Most notable in this regard, however, was John Marburger, also a physicist, and science adviser to Republican President George W. Bush. Marburger in fact was a Democrat, a respected scientist and university administrator, and unlike Keyworth and Holdren was a low-profile player in White House politics. But <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/science/at-the-center-of-the-storm-over-bush-and-science.html">he was skewered</a> by Democrats in Congress and their allies in the scientific community for failing to oppose Bush policies on issues <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3898-2_8">such as stem cell research and climate change</a> – even though he would surely have been fired had he done so.</p>
<p>Science advisers are not apolitical nerds, high-level versions of Bill Nye the Science Guy on tap to answer a president’s questions about why the sky is blue or how a bar-code scanner works. Science advisers are political players on a political team, and above all, Trump’s choice of Droegemeier must be understood in that vein.</p>
<h2>A challenge ahead for nominee</h2>
<p>Yet Droegemeier represents a somewhat bizarre choice. Trump could have chosen a science adviser with expertise relevant to administration policy priorities, such as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/13/trump-signs-717-billion-defense-bill.html">defense buildup</a>, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1435/bring-back-manufacturing/">restoring the manufacturing base</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/climate/trump-environment-rules-reversed.html">undoing environmental regulations</a>. Given his skepticism about climate change, Trump could even have chosen a science adviser with similar views. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2017.21336">Early rumors suggested</a> he would do just that.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"265895292191248385"}"></div></p>
<p>Instead, in Droegemeier he has selected an expert on weather and climate who seems – although his public statements on the matter are few – to agree with most other climate scientists that human activities are contributing to a changing climate. So Droegemeier comes into his job holding a view that sharply contradicts a conspicuous public position taken by the president. As we have seen, this is not a proven formula for success.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232353/original/file-20180816-2894-n1tqjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232353/original/file-20180816-2894-n1tqjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232353/original/file-20180816-2894-n1tqjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232353/original/file-20180816-2894-n1tqjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232353/original/file-20180816-2894-n1tqjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232353/original/file-20180816-2894-n1tqjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232353/original/file-20180816-2894-n1tqjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232353/original/file-20180816-2894-n1tqjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Perhaps vouching for now NASA Administrator James Bridenstine paid political dividends.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/NASA-New-Orleans/83d16f58bcd94e18b405db1d608b2c54/1/0">AP Photo/Gerald Herbert</a></span>
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<p>Why did Trump pick Droegemeier, then? For one thing, within the Trump administration he likely has the support of NASA director and fellow Oklahoman Jim Bridenstine, at least in part because Droegemeier supported Bridenstine’s nomination for the NASA directorship by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap8749">providing public assurances</a> that Bridenstine was not a climate skeptic. For another, Droegemeier has the <a href="https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/inhofe-lankford-applaud-presidential-appointment-of-oklahoman">endorsement</a> of Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, a powerful Trump ally <a href="https://wndbooks.wnd.com/the-greatest-hoax-2/">who is a climate skeptic</a>.</p>
<p>So perhaps Droegemeier’s selection was just a matter of smart political triangulation: A man who has the confidence of political leaders of a state where Trump won with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/states/oklahoma">more than 65 percent of the vote</a>, and also just happens to have unimpeachable scientific credentials, is a rare political commodity.</p>
<p>Now that he’s confirmed by the Senate, whatever role Droegemeier ends up playing will be one of service to the political agenda of the Trump administration. Given that Democrats have over the past 15 years or more <a href="http://issues.org/25-4/sarewitz-2/">sought to portray themselves</a> as the party of science, Droegemeier will find it difficult to maintain his stellar reputation as a scientist while also advocating policies that Democrats and their allies in the scientific community oppose. He should expect severe political weather for the next few years. Perhaps the most interesting question is whether the fiercest gales will come from the Democrats, now that they are back in charge of the House of Representatives, or from Droegmeier’s unpredictable boss in the White House.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on Aug. 17, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101233/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Sarewitz has received funding from the US National Science Foundation to study the politics of science and technology policy. He is a registered Democrat and has contributed to Democratic candidates at the local, state, and national levels.</span></em></p>Almost two years in, Trump finally has a science adviser in position. History demonstrates that the role is at least as political as it is scientific.Daniel Sarewitz, Professor of Science and Society, Co-Director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/995002018-07-19T21:27:34Z2018-07-19T21:27:34ZWho needs science advice anyway? Governments, for one<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228497/original/file-20180719-142414-6r2mil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Molly Shoichet, Ontario's first chief scientist, was fired by the provinces newly elected premier, Doug Ford.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Roberta Baker/University of Toronto)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been much consternation within the Ontario research community since Premier Doug Ford <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/07/04/doug-ford-ontario-chief-scientist_a_23474870/">summarily dismissed</a> the province’s first chief scientist, <a href="http://www.ecf.utoronto.ca/%7Emolly/home.html">Molly Shoichet</a>, after she’d been in the job for only six months. </p>
<p>The new government, elected on a populist wave in June, quickly fired the esteemed scientist — widely lauded for her biomedical engineering expertise and skill at communicating science — only a few days after being sworn in. Yet the new government has promised to appoint a replacement. </p>
<p>The move raises the question: What is the role of a “chief scientist” within government?</p>
<h2>Spotty history</h2>
<p>Canada has had a spotty history with such scientific advisory positions. </p>
<p>Arthur Carty was Canada’s first national science adviser, holding the position from 2004 to 2008, until it <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/scientists-lament-closing-of-key-advisory-office-1.756700">ended unceremoniously</a>, as his office was largely neglected. Justin Trudeau’s government appointed <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2017/09/26/prime-minister-introduces-canadas-new-top-scientist">Mona Nemer as chief science adviser</a> in 2016. <a href="http://www.scientifique-en-chef.gouv.qc.ca/en/le-scientifique-en-chef/">Québec</a> and <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2017/11/ontario-names-molly-shoichet-the-provinces-first-chief-scientist.html">Ontario</a> have also created similar roles. </p>
<p>These appointments offer several benefits. These advisers are a signal to the public that governments care about science, they have held leadership roles for reports on scientific questions important to Canadians — including the <a href="http://www.sciencereview.ca">Naylor Report on Fundamental Science</a>, which reviewed the status of publicly funded research in Canada — and they’ve acted as ambassadors for <a href="https://twitter.com/ChiefSciCan/status/1016381084240629761">international scientific cooperation</a>.</p>
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<h2>Science connections</h2>
<p>Around the world, governments engage various mechanisms to connect to scientific advice and knowledge, from dedicated offices to formal engagements of arms-length scientific bodies to, well, nothing. </p>
<p>The U.K., for example, has had a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-office-for-science#management">chief science adviser</a> since 1964. It has been held by 13 people (all men) and reports to the prime minister and cabinet. </p>
<p>The connection between government and scientific advice in the U.K. goes back much further, however. Since the 18th century, the government has referred questions of scientific import to the <a href="https://royalsociety.org/about-us/history/">Royal Society</a> for comment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228093/original/file-20180717-44100-1rtdmut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228093/original/file-20180717-44100-1rtdmut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228093/original/file-20180717-44100-1rtdmut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228093/original/file-20180717-44100-1rtdmut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228093/original/file-20180717-44100-1rtdmut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228093/original/file-20180717-44100-1rtdmut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228093/original/file-20180717-44100-1rtdmut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Barack Obama named his science adviser, physicist John Holdren, more quickly than any first-term president since 1976, when the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy was created.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the U.S., the science advisory role has traditionally been filled by the <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43935.pdf">Office of Science and Technology Policy</a> (OSTP). (Its predecessor, the Office of Science Research and Development, was famously helmed by the first U.S. science adviser, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1974/06/30/archives/dr-vannevar-bush-is-dead-at-84-dr-vannevar-bush-who-marshaled.html">Vannevar Bush</a>, during the Second World War.) </p>
<p>There is currently no science adviser leading OSTP <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Science_and_Technology_Policy">after 27 continuous appointments</a>. Its current <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-rsquo-s-science-advisor-age-31-has-a-political-science-degree/">de facto head</a> has a degree in political science. His predecessor was a lauded <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/person/john-p-holdren">physicist and environmental scientist</a>. </p>
<h2>Vacant politics</h2>
<p>The leadership vacancy in the OSTP is a political act, as it is in Ontario, raising the obvious question of whether the position of science adviser is a political one. </p>
<p>Science, per se, doesn’t care what the political leanings are of the prevailing, elected body. But a human is required to distil that information and provide it in an advisory capacity. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/news/policy-the-art-of-science-advice-to-government-1.14838">Peter Gluckman</a>, New Zealand’s first science adviser (2009-2017), noted that, first and foremost, the role requires earning and keeping the public’s trust and to act as a broker rather than an advocate for science. </p>
<p>Indeed, many scientists think these roles are a conduit to more funding for research. That is neither true nor desirable. If a government thought that every time they sought the wisdom of their chief scientist it would be accompanied by a bill of goods, there would be little consultation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228099/original/file-20180717-44082-10s8aig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228099/original/file-20180717-44082-10s8aig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228099/original/file-20180717-44082-10s8aig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228099/original/file-20180717-44082-10s8aig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228099/original/file-20180717-44082-10s8aig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228099/original/file-20180717-44082-10s8aig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228099/original/file-20180717-44082-10s8aig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After two large earthquakes struck Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011, Peter Gluckman, the country’s chief science adviser, worked with scientists to communicate future risks and calm the public.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mark Baker)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The decision to act upon evidence or set it aside is neither the responsibility nor competency of a scientific adviser. That decision rests solely with elected politicians who, in turn, should demand all of the evidence, whether it is supportive or not for their purposes.</p>
<p>But it pays to remember that advisers are human (and may inject some slant), and that politicians like those who make their decisions easier, even if that means receiving advice that is partially inaccurate or incomplete.</p>
<p>In other words, the role of science adviser is not as straightforward as many may imagine. But it must be.</p>
<h2>Science, dismissed</h2>
<p>For example, the OSTP leadership vacancy sends a clear political message: The current U.S. administration does not see value in a chief science adviser — a message amplified by severe depletion and neglect of <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/trump-s-white-house-science-office-still-small-and-waiting-leadership">OSTP staff</a> and even its <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/">stub of a website</a>. </p>
<p>There must be some input of science into decision-making in Washington, but the long-established structure is being dismantled and replaced by far less rigorous channels. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228495/original/file-20180719-142417-fzan3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228495/original/file-20180719-142417-fzan3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228495/original/file-20180719-142417-fzan3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228495/original/file-20180719-142417-fzan3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228495/original/file-20180719-142417-fzan3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228495/original/file-20180719-142417-fzan3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228495/original/file-20180719-142417-fzan3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canada’s chief science adviser, Mona Nemer, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adam Scotti/PMO</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At a time of ubiquitous fake information, pseudoscience and a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-13524677">King Canute-like resistance</a> to global warming and the benefits of vaccination, the wanton dereliction of the OSTP can only be seen as intentional dismissal of science as being relevant to policy.</p>
<p>The wilful ignorance of often inconvenient scientific evidence is nothing new. But in the past its occurrence existed against the backdrop of a largely uneducated populace where science challenged the beliefs and desires of the powerful few, such as hereditary land owners and religious hierarchies. </p>
<h2>Science is expensive, good advice is cheap</h2>
<p>Modern society is now utterly dependent upon technologies based on physical principles few of us understand. </p>
<p>We demand progress in our quality of life that can only be fuelled by more research and development. New technologies, in turn, drive substantive changes within those same societies that demand them, causing economic and population disruption — along with eradication of more diseases, less poverty and longer life expectancy. </p>
<p>Along with the good, there are negative consequences as a result of scientific development, including urbanization, pollution, ecosystem destruction, species extinction, etc. </p>
<p>In this context, the role of science advisers to government has never been more necessary and their purity of purpose more essential. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228485/original/file-20180719-142417-1g1e8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228485/original/file-20180719-142417-1g1e8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228485/original/file-20180719-142417-1g1e8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228485/original/file-20180719-142417-1g1e8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228485/original/file-20180719-142417-1g1e8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228485/original/file-20180719-142417-1g1e8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228485/original/file-20180719-142417-1g1e8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Science advisers offer governments advice on a wide range of topics, from demographic changes in society to sustainable development to aerospace and biotechnology.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These roles require a person of the highest integrity, with the ability to communicate complexity, who appreciates and can absorb the remarkable breadth of science and is also familiar with the political process. </p>
<p>However, they must absolutely be aware of — and resist bias in — their advice. They must also require complete independence and respect for their role from their appointing governors. They must, first and foremost, be respected scientists who can bring the rigour of a scientific mind to government. </p>
<p>In this light, the OSTP vacancy could be seen as a positive outcome — an adviser who provides government with only what it wants to hear is more dangerous than having no advice at all. </p>
<p>Ontarians, on the other hand, are not there yet. They, and their elected representatives, should demand that the new chief science adviser must be at least as proficient, objective, rigorous, respected and gracious as Molly Shoichet. </p>
<p>That will be one difficult seat to fill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jim Woodgett receives competitive grant funding from Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Terry Fox Foundation for Cancer Research. </span></em></p>Governments lean on science advisers for guidance on increasingly complex issues of great concern, including oil and gas development, drug legalization, water quality and the environment.Jim Woodgett, Director of Research, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/869942017-11-08T11:18:54Z2017-11-08T11:18:54ZThe climate science report Trump hoped to ignore will resonate outside of Washington, DC<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193654/original/file-20171107-6766-s2o1jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flooding in Port Arthur, Texas during Hurricane Harvey, Aug. 31, 2017. According to the Climate Science Special Report released on Nov. 2, heavy precipitation events are becoming more frequent and intense in most regions of the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Harvey#/media/File:Support_during_Hurricane_Harvey_(TX)_(50).jpg">SC National Guard</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, without comment, the White House published a study officially titled the <a href="https://science2017.globalchange.gov/">Climate Science Special Report</a>. Contrary to many statements and positions articulated by President Trump, members of his Cabinet, his surrogates and his supporters, the report clearly states that Earth’s climate is changing, and “it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.”</p>
<p>The study was prepared pursuant to a 1990 law in which Congress <a href="http://www.globalchange.gov/about/legal-mandate">directed</a> government scientists to prepare and transmit a report to the president and Congress every four years assembling and interpreting findings from the <a href="http://www.globalchange.gov/agencies">U.S. Global Change Research Program</a>. This initiative draws together work from 13 federal agencies that conduct or use research on global change and its impacts, in areas ranging from agriculture to national defense. The report is part I of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, with more to follow.</p>
<p>Along with many other others, I was <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-rejection-of-national-climate-report-would-do-more-damage-than-exiting-the-paris-agreement-82243">concerned</a> that the Trump administration would reject the report’s conclusions, thereby emboldening contrarians and giving decision-makers at all levels of government cover to ignore climate change in their policy decisions. </p>
<p>Now that the administration has implicitly accepted the report, the question is whether it will have any impact on federal policy. In my view, the chances of that are slim to none. However, letting the report stand has strengthened the case for action to slow and otherwise respond to climate change across the country, notwithstanding President Trump’s reluctance to lead from Washington.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WAUIBOEiyhE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Climate Science Special Report directly contradicts many statements by Trump administration officials.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A vacant White House science office</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/about">Office of Science and Technology Policy</a>, where this report landed, was created by Congress in 1976 to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-does-a-us-president-settle-on-his-science-policy-69953">advise the president</a> and coordinate among agencies on issues ranging from climate change to space exploration. Historically the office’s director has also served as science adviser to the president, a post that is subject to Senate confirmation.</p>
<p>During final preparation of the Third National Climate Assessment in 2013, I served as vice chair of the National Climate Assessment Development and Advisory Committee. Our job was to bring together an assessment written by nearly 300 authors and deliver it to the Obama administration in a form that nonscientists could understand, while preserving the integrity of the science that went into it. </p>
<p>As the report neared completion, we were regularly called to meetings in Washington, D.C. with John Holdren, President Barack Obama’s science adviser. Our work focused on new climate science studies: We examined recent findings and discussed how they affected our confidence in our key messages and the evidence on which we based each of our conclusions.</p>
<p>For example, we considered new analyses of agricultural yields which ultimately strengthened our finding that “climate disruptions to agricultural production have increased in the past 40 years and are projected to increase over the next 25 years. By midcentury and beyond, these impacts will be increasingly negative on most crops and livestock.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193659/original/file-20171107-6733-yheql8.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193659/original/file-20171107-6733-yheql8.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193659/original/file-20171107-6733-yheql8.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193659/original/file-20171107-6733-yheql8.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193659/original/file-20171107-6733-yheql8.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193659/original/file-20171107-6733-yheql8.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193659/original/file-20171107-6733-yheql8.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193659/original/file-20171107-6733-yheql8.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201606">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>President Obama released the full Third National Climate Assessment in the Rose Garden on <a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2014/20140506_climateassessment.html">May 6, 2014</a>. In contrast, last week’s release was like trick-or-treating on Halloween and coming to a house with a bowl of candy at the door but nobody home. </p>
<p>That’s because the White House Science Office is currently an empty shell. President Trump has yet to nominate a director for the office and has no science adviser. There is no one there to act on the report’s findings, or on <a href="http://www.globalchange.gov/content/nca4-planning">part II of the new assessment</a> on climate change impacts, risks and adaption, which is scheduled for completion in early 2018. </p>
<p>The Trump administration is not legally required to incorporate the assessment’s findings in its policy and budgetary decisions, and its strong tilt toward <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-slams-brakes-on-obamas-climate-plan-but-theres-still-a-long-road-ahead-75252">policies that promote fossil fuels</a> strongly indicates that it will not do so.</p>
<h2>Action beyond Washington, DC</h2>
<p>However, having published the report, President Trump and his Cabinet cannot wish its findings away. Rejecting it could have cast a cloud over climate-related decisions at the state and local levels and in the private sector. We can’t be certain of the impacts of not rejecting it, but letting it stand makes some outcomes more likely. Notably:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Congress will have more trouble dismissing proposed legislation that takes climate change risk into account.</p></li>
<li><p>It will be harder for federal agencies to justify barring the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/14/donald-trump-climate-change-mentions-government-websites">mention of climate change from documents and websites</a> or <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/10/epa-prevents-scientists-from-giving-climate-change-talks.html">preventing their scientists from giving presentations</a> on climate change.</p></li>
<li><p>Shareholders of major corporations can cite the climate science report as a basis for urging CEOs to heed material climate risk.</p></li>
</ul>
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<li><p>Local governments will have stronger cases for action to ameliorate impacts of climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, Miami is considering a general obligation bond proposal that would use new property taxes to underwrite a US$200 million down payment on an anticipated $900 million investment to <a href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/08/16/miami-florida-climate-change-sea-level-rise-adaptation">upgrade flood prevention and drainage systems</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>The Trump administration will have a harder time <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pull-of-energy-markets-and-legal-challenges-will-blunt-plans-to-roll-back-epa-carbon-rules-85561">making its case in court</a> for proposed actions such as repealing the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-tears-down-us-climate-policy-but-america-could-lose-out-as-a-result-75391">Clean Power Plan</a>.</p></li>
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<p>In summary, action to mitigate and adapt to climate change has already moved beyond the D.C. Beltway, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/red-state-rural-america-is-acting-on-climate-change-without-calling-it-climate-change-69866">quiet steps in red-state rural areas</a>. In my view, the Trump administration’s stamp of “non-disapproval” on the climate science report will only fuel these efforts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86994/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary W. Yohe has received modest research funding from the federal government, but none since 2000 except for travel reimbursement for attending IPCC and NCA3 meetings. Professor Yohe is co-editor-in-chief of Climatic Change. As Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, he currently receives modest research funding through Wesleyan University. He is current a member of the Board of Trustees of the CT chapter of the Nature Conservancy. </span></em></p>On Nov. 2 the White House posted a detailed climate science report without comment. The Trump administration is unlikely to heed it, but it could boost state, local and private sector action.Gary W. Yohe, Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, Wesleyan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/761222017-07-25T01:15:13Z2017-07-25T01:15:13ZA bold, bipartisan plan to return the US to the vanguard of 21st-century technological innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179513/original/file-20170724-28519-15xs1xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How can we ensure technology brings prosperity to us all?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-finger-touching-beam-light-surrounded-653381008">ra2studio/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digital technologies like the internet and smartphones are transforming our lives and society. They are proving to be powerful tools for liberating individuals’ creative and entrepreneurial potential, as well as providing new educational opportunities and higher wages for marginalized people, both in the U.S. and around the globe. Unfortunately, in the U.S., <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/3-most-outdated-tech-laws/">outdated government</a> <a href="https://techliberation.com/2010/03/30/digital-due-process-protecting-americans%E2%80%99-privacy-by-restoring-constitutional-limits-to-government-in-ecpa/">regulations</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/consumers-lose-with-a-weak-consumer-financial-protection_us_591f427ae4b0e8f558bb2637">weak consumer protections</a> are <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250071583">undermining these opportunities</a>.</p>
<p>What’s more, the Trump administration has not yet made significant moves to address this growing crisis: As of this writing, <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/office-of-science-and-technology-policy-trump-jobs">five key White House positions are vacant</a>, without even acting directors or interim leaders to help the executive branch formulate U.S. science and technology policy. </p>
<p>As the founder of both the <a href="http://opentechinstitute.org">Open Technology Institute</a> and <a href="http://thexlab.org">the X-Lab</a> policy and innovation organization, I have spent years at the heart of <a href="http://business.time.com/2013/05/01/time-tech-40-the-ten-most-influential-tech-ceos/slide/sascha-meinrath-new-america-foundation/">many Washington, D.C. battles over technology policy</a>, <a href="http://radio.wpsu.org/post/take-note-privacy-digital-age-sascha-meinrath">fighting for ideas</a> that would <a href="https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/best-keynote-of-the-year-so-far-sascha-meinrath-on-policy-hacking/2009/03/31">best serve American workers</a> and <a href="http://law.emory.edu/eilr/_documents/volumes/26/2/symposium/meinrath-ammori.pdf">the general public</a>. As <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/05/19/the-new-digital-economy/">technology spreads</a> throughout nearly <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/03/10/public-predictions-for-the-future-of-workforce-automation/">every facet of our society</a>, including health care, transportation, education and electricity, the benefits tend to grab the headlines, while their <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/02/08/code-dependent-pros-and-cons-of-the-algorithm-age/">costs are often downplayed</a> or ignored outright. My work, and that of many other technology policy experts and public interest advocates, has focused on ensuring that the digital revolutions in our society and our economy bring the most freedoms and benefits to the most people, with as little oppression and harm as possible – a goal that is <a href="http://www.fourthadvisory.org/steering-board">shared by a vast majority of the general public</a> from across traditional political, socioeconomic, racial and cultural divides.</p>
<p>While many lament the <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/25/the-political-environment-on-social-media/">current state of political bickering</a>, my experience is that technology is a domain where panpartisan agreement is often possible. With this in mind, here are 10 big ideas that resonate <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2016/06/22/partisanship-and-political-animosity-in-2016/">across traditional political boundaries</a> – common ground that yields solid support among lawmakers and constituents spanning the ideological spectrum from the libertarian right to the progressive left.</p>
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<h2>Transition to a real sharing economy</h2>
<p>Today’s dominant business models hold great promise, <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/rawdeal/stevenhill">but also great peril, for millions of working-class Americans</a>. Many companies are using digital tools to shift work <a href="http://www.govtech.com/policy/Employee-or-Independent-Contractor-Its-the-Uber-Important-Question-of-Todays-Economy.html">from traditional full-time employees to part-time independent contractors</a>. At present, this lets them circumvent <a href="https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/hire-retain-employees/hire-contractor-or-employee">rules protecting full-timers’ health, safety and equal access to work</a>. We need true portability of benefits – including <a href="http://bostonreview.net/us/steven-hill-uber-economy-individual-security-accounts">better retirement savings plans</a> and <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/28/news/warren-buffett-single-payer-health-care/index.html">single-payer health insurance</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, we need to address the effects of disruptive technologies, like those that will <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/02/when-robots-take-bad-jobs/517953/">replace truckers with automated vehicles</a>, full-time taxi drivers with <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ride-hailing-apps-like-uber-continue-cab-industrys-history-of-racial-discrimination-68462">part-time Uber and Lyft drivers</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-really-help-us-workers-we-should-invest-in-robots-71125">factory workers with robots</a>. We need <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Works-Progress-Administration">a modern-day Works Progress Administration</a> for the tens of millions who will soon become displaced workers. It can be a way to retrain workers, and at the same time make <a href="https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/">badly needed improvements</a> to roads, bridges and other key structures our economy depends on. With forethought, we can prevent mass unemployment and underemployment.</p>
<h2>Protect consumers from technological barriers</h2>
<p>In today’s post-industrial age, <a href="https://www.schneier.com/books/data_and_goliath/">software controls traditional mechanical, financial and agrarian practices</a>. But <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-20/should-america-s-tech-giants-be-broken-up">rather than spurring innovation</a> to improve people’s lives, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-cant-we-fix-our-own-electronic-devices-77601">technology is blocking progress</a> in key ways: for example, by <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/03/23/tractor-hack-farmers-are-harnessing-hacked-software-for-john-deere-repairs.html">preventing farmers from fixing their own tractors</a>. The <a href="https://www.publicknowledge.org/issues/patent-reform">progressive left</a> and <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/patent-nonsense/">libertarian right agree</a>: <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/copyright-law-crony-capitalism-and-economic-growth-a-qa-with-derek-khanna">Major reforms to copyright</a> and <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/senate-gets-serious-about-patent-reform-patent-act">patent law</a> are desperately needed to foster innovation and empower consumers.</p>
<p>Our current laissez-faire regulatory environment may have worked well when these were fledgling markets filled with small-scale startups. But today’s technology sector is dominated by a handful of corporate behemoths who’ve routinely engaged in what critics contend is <a href="http://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/amazons-antitrust-paradox">anti-competitive behavior</a> and consumer-disempowering business practices <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings?items_per_page=100">only barely addressed by current governmental oversight</a>.</p>
<p>Businesses use complex algorithms that engage in <a href="https://theconversation.com/removing-gender-bias-from-algorithms-64721">harmful discrimination</a>, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/upshot/when-algorithms-discriminate.html">showing higher-paying online job advertisements to men than women</a>, or advertising arrest records services to people searching for “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/upshot/when-algorithms-discriminate.html">distinctly black names</a>.” Retailers even <a href="http://time.com/money/3534651/price-discrimination-travelocity-orbitz-home-depot/">charge different people different amounts for the same good or service</a>, meaning only the most tech-savvy consumers are able to get the lowest price.</p>
<p>These practices make it harder for marginalized people to climb out of poverty, and more difficult for working-class Americans to spend their hard-earned money efficiently. While <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-consumer-protection">consumer protection laws</a> clearly outlaw unfair pricing and require equal employment opportunities, the regulations enforcing these laws are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/08/31/how-the-worlds-biggest-tech-companies-could-wriggle-out-of-all-privacy-regulations/">increasingly obsolete and impotent</a>. It’s time to update these rules of the road to make sure they meaningfully protect everyone from digitally mediated discrimination.</p>
<h2>Free educational materials</h2>
<p>Today’s textbooks, worksheets and other educational materials are often <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/why-are-college-textbooks-so-absurdly-expensive/266801/">both outdated and expensive</a>. They lock teachers and students into one-size-fits-all lessons, rather than encouraging the localized, tailored educational experiences that <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/edu/105/4/932/">better meet the needs of students and teachers alike</a>.</p>
<p>There are plenty of free resources available for teachers to customize their lessons. Public copyright licenses like <a href="https://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons</a> can promote free sharing of useful information, much as <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical">open-source software</a> can accomplish all the same tasks without buying costly licenses. <a href="http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1153/2256">Textbook costs can be cut in half</a> if schools were allowed to buy so-called “open textbooks,” rather than paying shockingly high premiums to a handful of commercial publishers. And <a href="http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1153/2256">students learn just as well</a>. We should be requiring schools to incorporate open, customizable digital technologies to personalize educational materials and teaching methods to better meet individual student needs.</p>
<h2>Promote broadband competition</h2>
<p>Roughly <a href="http://www.telecompetitor.com/pew-u-s-smartphone-ownership-broadband-penetration-reached-record-levels-in-2016/">80 million Americans don’t have high-speed internet access</a> at home. The main reason for that is <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/28/lack-of-broadband-can-be-a-key-obstacle-especially-for-job-seekers/">high cost</a>. Things aren’t much better for the two-thirds of Americans who do have broadband: Collectively, they’ll be <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/oti/policy-papers/the-cost-of-connectivity-2014/">charged more than a quarter-trillion dollars</a> more for internet service by 2025 in comparison to what residents in other countries are paying.</p>
<p>These negative consumer impacts are a direct result of <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=B09">extensive lobbying by Comcast and other media and telecom companies</a>, who’ve created noncompetitive markets that hurt consumers and stifle innovation. </p>
<p>Policies that drive universal access to low-cost, high-speed connectivity are a must. Politicians of all stripes support <a href="https://theconversation.com/americas-broadband-market-needs-more-competition-71676">creating or increasing competition</a>, preventing price-gouging in communities served by monopoly broadband providers and encouraging companies to provide internet service in remote areas. It’s also worth <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/opinion/expect-a-cozy-trump-telecom-alliance.html">reexamining anti-trust laws</a> (and how they are enforced) to make sure they are properly applied, especially since telecommunications services have become critical Americans’ personal and working lives.</p>
<h2>Modernize the electricity grid</h2>
<p>The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that <a href="http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=105&t=3">6 percent of all electricity produced is lost in transmission</a>. Allowing people to generate power at their homes, through residential solar panels and wind turbines, helps keep power generation and ownership local while also <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/08/22/490932307/aging-and-unstable-the-nations-electrical-grid-is-the-weakest-link">making the entire electrical grid more robust</a>.</p>
<p>However, scaling up this approach, called distributed microgeneration, requires an electrical system that enables two-way metering – a smart utility system that <a href="https://www.smartgrid.gov/files/description_of_assets.pdf">credits customers for power generated and charges them for power consumed</a>. We also need <a href="https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/smartgrid/FinalSGDoc2010019-corr010411-2.pdf">open standards for interoperability</a> between battery-powered vehicles and local grids, to help store locally generated power. And we need <a href="https://energy.gov/eere/buildings/tax-incentives-energy-efficiency-upgrades-commercial-buildings">financial supports for consumers to deploy microgeneration solutions</a>, in much the same ways we’ve done for other energy efficiency efforts.</p>
<p>Modernizing our electrical grid means integrating a host of new digital technologies – from enhancing two-way communications among different components of the grid to enabling micro-payments among local consumers and micro-generators – all of which will improve efficiency while simultaneously lowering the cost of energy.</p>
<h2>Give users control of their data</h2>
<p>Mass surveillance – including of <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/technology/320357-nra-claims-nsa-illegally-created-a-gun-database">gun owners</a>, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/factsheet-nypd-muslim-surveillance-program">Muslims</a> and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-police-idUSKBN1762KB">African-American</a> leaders – limits Americans’ freedom.</p>
<p>An increasing array of networked devices, such as fitness trackers, smart thermostats, smartphones and cars, <a href="https://www.schneier.com/books/data_and_goliath/">collect information on their users’ activities</a>. Consumer protections in the 21st century must ensure that we have <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/DigitalAge/Pages/DigitalAgeIndex.aspx">access to and control over our own data</a>.</p>
<p>We need to expand upon the work of pioneers in privacy-protecting devices like <a href="http://freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedom Box</a> and <a href="https://www.silentcircle.com/products-and-solutions/devices/">BlackPhone</a>, to give individuals control of the data their activities generate. This also opens the door for innovators to develop smart connected devices that serve as part of a more free, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/09/internet-of-things-smart-devices-spying-surveillance-us-government">more privacy-protecting “Internet of Things.”</a></p>
<p>Because the Federal Trade Commission is <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-future/can-consumers-trust-ftc-protect-their-privacy">unwilling or unable to step in</a>, Congress will likely have to act – the way it did to <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule">protect children online</a> and <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/">patients’ medical records</a>. A comprehensive framework that places consumers in control of their data is essential in an era where <a href="http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/worlds-biggest-data-breaches-hacks/">companies increasingly fail to protect our private information</a>.</p>
<h2>Make software and data open to all</h2>
<p>The United States spends billions of dollars every year on information technology, and <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/transparency/Pages/OverviewOfAwards.aspx">tens of billions more on government-funded research and other grants</a>. This represents an enormous investment by American taxpayers. Yet <a href="http://www.jetlaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/KimbroughGasaway_SPE_7-FINAL.pdf">the public often gets only limited access</a> to the tools, research and data that we have so generously funded.</p>
<p>Software, data and research results should be available to the citizen-investors who paid for its development. This will, in turn, stimulate innovation, improve efficiency and ensure that taxpayers <a href="https://www.data.gov/research/">get the value we deserve from the investments we make</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, reviews of grant applications should ensure applicants’ prior work has accomplished the results that were promised. We cannot afford technological “<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/8/alaska-kills-bridge-to-nowhere-that-helped-put-end/">bridges to nowhere</a>” that eat up money while providing no real tangible benefits or improved scientific understanding. </p>
<p>We must make smart government investments that avoid duplication of existing private and nonprofit open technology initiatives. This means focusing on support for innovations that maximally benefit the general public (and not just corporations and their major stockholders). Federal research money should be a public investment in a public good.</p>
<h2>Lay the groundwork for intelligent transportation</h2>
<p>As autonomous vehicles become more common, we’ll need to update laws about traffic, insurance and liability. New rules will protect the general public and <a href="http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/wiki/index.php/Automated_Driving:_Legislative_and_Regulatory_Action">create real opportunities for smart vehicles to prove their value</a>.</p>
<p>The first major effect from autonomous vehicles will be the <a href="https://medium.com/basic-income/self-driving-trucks-are-going-to-hit-us-like-a-human-driven-truck-b8507d9c5961">large-scale displacement of drivers</a> who currently work in the trucking and delivery sector. The country needs a transition plan for the country’s <a href="http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-automated-trucks-labor-20160924/">3.5 million professional truckers who may lose their jobs to autonomous vehicles</a> in the coming years. Without a plan for putting truckers back to work, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2d70469c-140a-11e7-b0c1-37e417ee6c76?mhq5j=e2">millions of American families will suffer economic disaster</a>. We cannot ignore the coming economic and social impacts of technological innovations.</p>
<h2>Standardize medical record storage and transmission</h2>
<p>Regardless of its other shortcomings, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has also built one of the most <a href="https://connectedcare.va.gov/">sophisticated electronic health platforms on the planet</a>. The rest of us, however, live with separate health information fiefdoms – databases controlled by large insurance companies like Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Community Health Systems. </p>
<p>Having all those data locked up in proprietary systems creates <a href="https://digitalguardian.com/blog/top-10-biggest-healthcare-data-breaches-all-time">tempting targets for hackers</a>. That’s bad, but much worse is how hard it is to <a href="http://health.usnews.com/health-news/best-hospitals/articles/2015/10/15/hospitals-are-moving-slowly-to-electronic-medical-records">transfer patients’ health records among doctors, hospitals and insurers</a>. We should use open and nonproprietary technologies to make electronic medical records more functional and eliminate redundant paperwork. It’s the 21st century: we shouldn’t have to keep <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/but-seriously-now-why-do-doctors-still-make-you-fill-out-forms-on-clipboards/360308/">filling out the same information on clipboards</a> every time we go to a doctor. </p>
<p>Even more importantly, the life and cost savings of an interoperable health IT system are staggering. If doctors knew what others were prescribing to their mutual patients, they could all but eliminate negative drug interactions that <a href="http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814847_6">cost hundreds of dollars every time</a> they happen – not to mention causing over two million serious drug interactions leading to over <a href="https://www.fda.gov/drugs/developmentapprovalprocess/developmentresources/druginteractionslabeling/ucm110632.htm">100,000 deaths every year</a>. With <a href="https://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm096386.htm">40 percent of Americans on four or more medications</a> at once, the direct savings from this improvement alone would be in the tens of millions of dollars a year (far more than enough to pay for the systems initial development and ongoing improvement).</p>
<h2>Focus government on technology</h2>
<p>Given its role in countless facets of our lives, technology can no longer be an afterthought in our governmental deliberations. The head of the National Institute of Standards and Technology should be empowered to <a href="http://csrc.nist.gov/">set executive branch technology and online security policies</a> and implement the best practices they’ve already developed. NIST should receive the budget and decision-making authority necessary to implement reforms across governmental units.</p>
<p>In addition, NIST should mandate the use of encryption by default for all government IT systems. And Congress should promote strong encryption in society at large by banning federal entities from demanding <a href="https://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/07/why-a-back-door-to-the-internet-is-a-bad-idea/?_r=0">back doors or other unbelievably bad ideas</a> that undermine our collective security. Together, these actions will help ensure that Americans’ communications and data are as secure as they can be.</p>
<p>We must forge a bold new trajectory for a 21st-century civil society – one that prioritizes individual liberty and consumer empowerment. Otherwise, the detrimental impacts of new digital technologies will continue to undermine our livelihoods, our happiness and the underpinnings of our democratic society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sascha Meinrath has been an Ashoka Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship since 2012. He serves as a board member for the Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee; Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition; Brave New Software Foundation; Bill of Rights Defense Committee; Acorn Active Media Foundation; and Freedom to Connect Foundation. He is also a member of the advisory councils for the Alliance for Affordable Internet, the Calyx Institute, FreedomBox Foundation, Loomio, and the Open Internet Tools Project.</span></em></p>Political and community leaders must act now to preserve the American middle class and adapt the US economy for the 21st century.Sascha Meinrath, Director of X-Lab; Palmer Chair in Telecommunications, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/706992017-01-13T02:04:18Z2017-01-13T02:04:18ZObama’s legacy in science, technology and innovation<p>As the <a href="http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/10/20/no-predict/">old aphorism says</a>, it’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. Assessing the legacy of Barack Obama will be easier in a few decades when we can see the long-term consequences of his presidential decisions and initiatives.</p>
<p>An immediate analysis of his science and technology policies, however, reveals significant accomplishments in the promotion of science and technology, education, space exploitation, clean energy, climate change and the environment. While major endeavors like the <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-02-25/obama-precision-medicine-initiative-is-first-step-to-revolutionizing-medicine">Precision Medicine Initiative</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/05/obama-paris-climate-deal-ratification">Paris climate agreement</a> received the headlines, they were part of a larger, mostly successful goal to “<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16452-obama-to-restore-science-to-its-rightful-place/">restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders</a>” in forming and implementing government policy. </p>
<p>The administration’s shortcomings around science – some of which reflected Republican political pressures – included limited funding overall and travel restrictions for government workers, both of which reduced the effectiveness of positive science and tech policies.</p>
<h2>Psyched about science</h2>
<p>In office Obama was fundamentally an <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/10/president-obama-guest-edits-wired-essay/">optimist about the potential</a> of science and technology to improve society and safely expand the economy. His most significant (and low profile) near-term <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/initiatives">initiatives</a> elevated and institutionalized the foundations of scientific research – exploration, data-based experimentation and policy, openness, transparency, and access to information – into routine government activities. These steps should accelerate the commercialization and diffusion of research.</p>
<p>Many changes were small but improved the efficiency of programs. For example, modifications made <a href="http://freakonomics.com/podcast/white-house-gets-nudge-business/">based on the outcomes of behavioral science experiments</a> increased military employees’ participation in the Thrift Saving Plan while cutting program costs.</p>
<p>One visible sign of the importance the Obama administration placed on making sure research results made it out of labs and into practice was the expansion of the phrase “science and technology” (S&T) to “<a href="http://issues.org/25-4/obama/">science, technology and innovation</a>” (ST&I) by president Obama. The creation of the new positions of federal <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/what-does-the-chief-technology-officer-of-a-country-do/379665/">Chief Technology Officer</a>, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/09/08/announcing-first-federal-chief-information-security-officer">Chief Information Security Officer</a>, and <a href="http://www.govtech.com/data/Introducing-the-Chief-Data-Scientist.html">Chief Data Officer</a> was another indication of this integration.</p>
<p>Obama strongly supported science, technology, engineering and math – <a href="http://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.1071/full/">STEM – education</a>. Hosting science fairs at the White House garnered lots of media attention. But other initiatives within the administration’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/k-12/educate-innovate">Educate to Innovate campaign</a> will prove more consequential in improving K-12 education in America. For instance, the <a href="https://100kin10.org">100Kin10 effort</a> aims to train 100,000 new science teachers by 2021, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/21/impact-report-100-examples-president-obamas-leadership-science">STEM for All encourages active learning for the increasingly diverse student population, and SkillCommons creates</a> open-source online software for education. </p>
<p>Environmentally, Obama focused on slowing global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/01/president-obama-in-science-trump-renewables/512519/">promoting renewable energy and increasing the efficiency of energy use</a> domestically and internationally. The incoming Trump administration with <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/11/climate-deniers-trump-administration">its climate deniers</a> may try to reverse many of Obama’s policies, but the last eight years have significantly <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam6284">reshaped the structure</a> of energy production and consumption worldwide. In 2015, <a href="http://fs-unep-centre.org/sites/default/files/attachments/16008nef_smallversionkomp.pdf">new electricity capacity</a> from renewables exceeded new capacity from fossil fuels for the first time.</p>
<p>In space, the Obama administration strongly <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/nasa-2016-budget-big-leap-toward-manned-launches-commercialized-space-exploration-2230845">promoted commercialization</a>, directing NASA to pay private firms to launch supplies and, in 2018, astronauts to the International Space Station. This should reduce the high cost of reaching earth orbit and thus the exploration and exploitation of space.</p>
<p>While attracting fewer headlines, initiatives on <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/10/13/executive-order-coordinating-efforts-prepare-nation-space-weather-events">space weather</a> and the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/NSTC/national_neo_preparedness_strategy_final.pdf">asteroids and comets that might strike our planet</a> may end up preserving civilization. In 1859, an extremely powerful solar storm disrupted Earth’s magnetic field. A similar “Carrington event” today would destroy satellites and much of the world’s electric power transmission grid. Worst-case scenarios (always good for pushing people to act) predict tens of millions of people dying because of the loss of electric power for years. A <a href="https://spaceguardcentre.com/what-are-neos/near-earth-objects-impact-effects/">large asteroid</a> striking Earth could devastate a large area, kill millions, and spark a new ice age. </p>
<p>Guarding against these rare but inevitable natural events will not excite voters, but demonstrates preventive stewardship. These initiatives coordinated government efforts across multiple departments to predict a dangerous event, provide warning, and equip satellites and terrestrial infrastructure to minimize harm and maximize resiliency. </p>
<h2>On the other hand, restricted travel</h2>
<p>One major negative effect on science from the Obama administration was its crippling of federal employees attending conferences.</p>
<p>In 2010, the General Services Administration, which supports federal agencies, held a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/us/politics/gsa-las-vegas-trip-is-the-talk-of-washington.html">lavish conference</a> in Las Vegas. Congressional Republicans and Democrats attacked this very visible misuse of taxpayer dollars. In response, the Obama administration overreacted by sharply restricting federal spending on conferences and creating an elaborate, expensive bureaucratic process for government employees to get permission to attend a conference, workshop or other professional meetings. <a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/668845.pdf">Reflecting these restrictions</a>, the number of defense scientists attending the Defense Security and Scanning conference of the International Society for Optics and Photonics dropped from 648 in 2012 to 206 in 2013, for example.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152579/original/image-20170112-18318-179e8d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152579/original/image-20170112-18318-179e8d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152579/original/image-20170112-18318-179e8d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152579/original/image-20170112-18318-179e8d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152579/original/image-20170112-18318-179e8d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152579/original/image-20170112-18318-179e8d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152579/original/image-20170112-18318-179e8d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152579/original/image-20170112-18318-179e8d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Serendipitous face to face interactions are a crucial part of scientific gatherings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ctbto/30256224650">CTBTO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The sharply curtailed government presence <a href="http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/SApprops%20S%26T%20Conference%20Travel%20Letter.pdf">frustrated scientific societies and researchers</a>, both federal employees and those in academia and the private sector. Despite the increasing ease of electronic communications, professional meetings remain <a href="https://hbr.org/2011/02/why-face-to-face-meetings-make">one of the most productive ways</a> for people to learn, exchange and debate ideas.</p>
<p>By decreasing opportunities for researchers to meet in person, the Obama administration hurt the creativity and productivity of the entire ST&I community, not just federal workers. This was an entirely self-inflicted wound.</p>
<h2>No real progress on cybersecurity</h2>
<p>Cybersecurity remains a <a href="http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/17468/sidetracked-obama-s-cybersecurity-legacy">weak area</a> for the Obama administration. The White House released a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Cyberspace_Policy_Review_final.pdf">policy review</a> in 2009, <a href="https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework">voluntary guidelines</a> for critical infrastructure in 2013 and its <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/cybersecurity_report.pdf">cybersecurity report</a> last month. </p>
<p>But while Obama was in office, new cyber issues kept emerging. The <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/12/obama-cybersecurity-plan/">theft of millions of records from the Office of Personnel Management by China</a>, the <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/how-russia-wins-an-election-214524">manipulation of the presidential election by Russia</a>, issues of <a href="https://epic.org/privacy/">privacy and surveillance</a>, <a href="https://www.ncsc.gov/publications/reports/fecie_all/Foreign_Economic_Collection_2011.pdf">economic cyberespionage</a> and the growing range of <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao/priority-areas/cyber-crime">cybercrimes</a> all illustrate the axiom, “<a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbiltdivinity/2015/12/neither-good-nor-bad-nor-neutral/">Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral</a>.” </p>
<p>In fairness, cybersecurity was a fairly low priority throughout the country. There were seemingly few consequences to firms that fail to maintain adequate defenses. The burden of <a href="https://www.identitytheft.gov/Know-Your-Rights">identity theft</a>, for example, falls on the individual. The revelations of American cyberspying by <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/snowdens-legacy-a-public-debate-about-online-privacy">Edward Snowden</a> and the deployment of the American-Israeli computer <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/security/the-real-story-of-stuxnet">Stuxnet virus</a> to destroy Iranian uranium centrifuges put the Obama administration on the defensive. Congressional and business skepticism, some partisan but mostly motivated by disagreement about what to do, resulted in <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/2390298/government/cybersecurity-stalls-in-senate--obama-could-issue-executive-order.html">little legislative action</a>. </p>
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<h2>And never enough funding</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most important shortcoming of the Obama administration’s science and technology agenda was its inability to increase S&T funding.</p>
<p>Partly this reflects the demographic trend of an aging U.S. population focused more on its retirement and medical costs than investing in research and development for the future. As more people retire and live longer, <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33074.pdf">entitlements</a> – like Social Security and Medicare – increasingly crowd out the discretionary part of the federal budget.</p>
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<p>Coupled with budget battles with Congressional Republicans, including a costly <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/reports/impacts-and-costs-of-october-2013-federal-government-shutdown-report.pdf">government shutdown in 2013</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2014/03/13/4-ways-sequestration-cost-taxpayers-money/">sequestration</a>, the result has been near-stagnant ST&I budgets. That’s in contrast to the <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43580.pdf">long-term increases</a> proposed by the president in 2009 to expand public and private spending on research and development from 2.8 to 3.0 percent of GDP.</p>
<p>Consequently, many opportunities went unfunded or underfunded. Success rates for grants from the <a href="https://report.nih.gov/success_rates/">National Institutes of Health</a>, <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/publications/2015/nsb201514.pdf">National Science Foundation</a> and <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/us-astronomers-stuck-in-grant-rejection-cycle-1.18631">NASA</a> all decreased. Indeed, President Obama in 2010 and again in 2016 called for <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/blue-planet-red-planet-politics-obama-s-giant-leap-for-legacy/">sending astronauts to Mars</a> but did not try to convince Congress to fund that undertaking, the latest of a series of presidents to do so. </p>
<h2>Science’s rightful place?</h2>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the Obama administration’s rhetoric outpaced its resources and restrictions. Nonetheless, the 44th president left a <a href="https://theconversation.com/obama-administrations-big-science-and-tech-innovation-socially-engaged-policy-67113">strong legacy</a> of supporting ST&I not just for the goals of discovery and economic growth but to strengthen democracy and improve the processes of government.</p>
<p>If its campaign tweets, transition staff, and cabinet appointments are any indication, the <a href="https://www.aaas.org/election-transition">incoming Trump administration</a> will provide a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/donald-trumps-war-on-science">very strong contrast</a>. With <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/report/science-and-the-trump-presidency/">top officials at odds with the data-based, open scientific approach</a> on many issues, science, technology, and innovation may take a beating.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Coopersmith received funding from the National Science Foundation for his research on the history of the fax. Coopersmith is a Democrat. </span></em></p>How did an administration committed to restoring “science to its rightful place” actually do?Jonathan Coopersmith, Professor of History, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/699532017-01-04T03:37:16Z2017-01-04T03:37:16ZHow does a US president settle on his science policy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151660/original/image-20170103-18647-u5pgl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4266%2C3458&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A president's science advisor is traditionally a close confidant.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Obama/bc5f47b6fa0d4618b49c83853d0e2ebd/10/0">AP Photo/Charles Dharapak</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the president’s most important responsibilities is fostering science, technology and innovation in the U.S. economy. The relationship between science and policy runs in two directions: Scientific knowledge can inform policy decisions, and conversely, policies affect the course of science, technology and innovation.</p>
<p>Historically, government spending on science has been good for the economy. Innovation is estimated to drive approximately <a href="http://doi.org/10.2307/1926047">85 percent of economic growth</a>. Not only does it provide a means for “<a href="https://notendur.hi.is/%7Elobbi/ut1/a_a/SCUMPETER.pdf">creative destruction</a>” within the economy, it also results in reduced costs for products and services that consumers demand. The United States prides itself as the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/strategy_for_american_innovation_october_2015.pdf">most innovative country</a> in the world, but how did it get that way?</p>
<p>Many famously disruptive technologies were invented in the United States – <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/is-war-necessary-for-economic-growth-9780195188042?cc=us&lang=en&">the internet</a>, <a href="http://thebreakthrough.org/images/pdfs/Lessons_from_the_Shale_Revolution.pdf">shale gas fracking</a> and <a href="https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/tech_benefits.html">solar photovoltaics</a> are three examples – and subsequently led to the growth of major American industries and associated jobs. Such inventions are the fruits of investments and effort made both by the private sector and the U.S. government (usually at different points in time).</p>
<p>President-elect Trump has made clear he <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/economy">intends to boost the economy’s growth rate</a> and supporting science and technology should be a vital part of his plan. So how does an American president settle on research priorities for the country? And once he has a science and innovation agenda, how does he move it forward to eventually seed new industries that have the potential to generate jobs and improve the country’s competitiveness?</p>
<h2>Where does the president get scientific advice?</h2>
<p>Every president since World War II has maintained a personal science advisor in the White House to inform key decisions about domestic and foreign policy, although some presidents proved more attentive than others.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151458/original/image-20161223-17321-17yvp21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151458/original/image-20161223-17321-17yvp21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151458/original/image-20161223-17321-17yvp21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151458/original/image-20161223-17321-17yvp21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151458/original/image-20161223-17321-17yvp21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151458/original/image-20161223-17321-17yvp21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151458/original/image-20161223-17321-17yvp21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151458/original/image-20161223-17321-17yvp21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Vannevar Bush had the ear of President Truman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vannevar_Bush_%26_Truman_1948.jpg">Abbie Rowe - US National Park Service</a></span>
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<p>The very first science advisor, Vannevar Bush, demonstrated his value during World War II as head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/trs/trsosrd.html">OSRD’s mission</a> was to marshal and coordinate civilian and military scientists to develop and deploy new technology in wartime. OSRD helped to establish the Manhattan Project and was the origin of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vannevar-Bush">military-industrial complex</a>. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bush later founded the Raytheon Corporation.) Bush also pushed for the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/overview-50.jsp">creation of the National Science Foundation</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_organic_statute.pdf">Congress established the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)</a> in 1976 to provide the president and others with scientific and technological expertise related to domestic and international affairs. It’s part of the Executive Office of the President, and its director (and associate directors) must be confirmed by the Senate.</p>
<p>Although the director does not have cabinet rank (as does, for example, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors), OSTP works alongside the other offices in the White House, including the Domestic Policy Council, the Council on Environmental Quality and the National Security Council. The 1976 act also authorized OSTP to lead interagency efforts to develop and implement sound science and technology policies and budgets.</p>
<p>Typically, the director of OSTP also has a separate appointment as special assistant to the president in order to serve as his private science advisor.</p>
<p>Many people in Washington seek the president’s ear, ranging from cabinet secretaries, senators and congressional representatives to lobbyists. But the president usually relies most heavily on his own personal staff within the Executive Office of the President. The Office of Science and Technology Policy thus is enormously influential in clarifying and implementing the president’s science, technology and innovation priorities.</p>
<h2>Budget is a big part of it</h2>
<p>Once a president determines his science and innovation priorities, his main tool to influence the country’s research agenda is the federal budget. His priorities may spring from concern about U.S. competitiveness in certain industries or sectors, or from a sense of opportunity about where new science or innovation could contribute to the public interest or national good. Of course, the <a href="http://budget.house.gov/budgetprocess/">president’s budget request must be approved by Congress</a> in order for the spending priorities to be fulfilled.</p>
<p>Innovation research is an uncertain and risky investment, which is why the government has traditionally shouldered the burden for pre- or noncommercial science and technology research and <a href="http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/BasicPerf-1.png">why universities do most of this type of research</a>. Federal funding for basic research is a crucial long-term investment in the nation’s future, and has traditionally garnered bipartisan support since businesses tend to focus on already proven technologies that are close to commercialization.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151462/original/image-20161223-17282-hq429j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151462/original/image-20161223-17282-hq429j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151462/original/image-20161223-17282-hq429j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151462/original/image-20161223-17282-hq429j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151462/original/image-20161223-17282-hq429j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151462/original/image-20161223-17282-hq429j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151462/original/image-20161223-17282-hq429j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151462/original/image-20161223-17282-hq429j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._research_funding.png">United States Office of Science and Technology Policy.</a></span>
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<p>The Department of Defense manages the largest portion of the <a href="http://www.aaas.org/news/guide-presidents-budget-research-and-development-fy-2017">federal R&D budget</a> (US$78 billion in the FY17 budget) compared with all other nondefense R&D combined, at $68 billion. The National Institutes of Health comes in second at 0.77 percent with $30.9 billion. The Department of Energy and NASA have far fewer resources, with R&D funds of about $14 billion and only $12 billion, respectively.</p>
<p>These research dollars go to our world-renowned national laboratories, to the private sector and to support the research of professors and graduate students in American universities.</p>
<p>Some of these investments will directly bear fruit for the economy, and others will do so indirectly through spillovers. The skills of the U.S. workforce are created in part through investments in STEM education and through their work experience over time. Those doing the research accumulate knowledge and expertise that can contribute to improved understanding and problem-solving. These people can then take their skills to commercial companies which create economic value, or they continue to innovate in nonprofit research institutes or universities to address problems in the public interest, such as how to reduce air pollution or improve lifesaving treatments for diseases ignored by private firms.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151459/original/image-20161223-17282-yx9s0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151459/original/image-20161223-17282-yx9s0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151459/original/image-20161223-17282-yx9s0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151459/original/image-20161223-17282-yx9s0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151459/original/image-20161223-17282-yx9s0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151459/original/image-20161223-17282-yx9s0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151459/original/image-20161223-17282-yx9s0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151459/original/image-20161223-17282-yx9s0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Accelerator Test Facility provides researchers with high-brightness electron and laser beams.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brookhavenlab/22033329588">Brookhaven National Laboratory</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Of course, high-risk research sometimes yields high-value rewards, especially when the government partners with the private sector.</p>
<p>The internet was originally invented by researchers associated with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, shale gas fracking from both Defense and DOE investments at Los Alamos National Lab and research on the <a href="https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/nih-almanac/national-human-genome-research-institute-nhgri">human genome</a> from NIH. Private firms like Microsoft and Google, Mitchell Energy and Pfizer capitalized upon taxpayer investments in science and technology to develop these industries.</p>
<h2>Case study: Obama’s OSTP</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/about/leadershipstaff/director">President Obama’s science advisor, John P. Holdren</a>, has provided advice on advanced manufacturing, national security, STEM education, space policy, climate change, energy policy, cybersecurity <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/initiatives">and more</a>. So during the Obama administration, the Office of Science and Technology Policy indeed worked with agencies to clarify science and technology priorities consistent with the president’s wishes, but it <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/21/impact-report-100-examples-president-obamas-leadership-science">accomplished much more than that</a>.</p>
<p>The OSTP worked to make more than <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/30/fact-sheet-new-steps-toward-ensuring-openness-and-transparency">180,000 federal datasets</a> and collections available to students, entrepreneurs and the public. It produced the first-ever <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/innovation/strategy/executive-summary">U.S. innovation strategy</a>, launched the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/precision-medicine">Precision Medicine Initiative</a> (providing more than $200 million to accelerate a new era of personalized medicine), embarked on a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/CancerMoonshot">Cancer Moonshot</a> initiative and launched the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/BRAIN">BRAIN initiative</a> that resulted in a doubling of research funding for Alzheimer’s research at NIH between 2012 and 2017.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151460/original/image-20161223-17310-3vz3y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151460/original/image-20161223-17310-3vz3y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151460/original/image-20161223-17310-3vz3y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151460/original/image-20161223-17310-3vz3y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151460/original/image-20161223-17310-3vz3y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151460/original/image-20161223-17310-3vz3y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151460/original/image-20161223-17310-3vz3y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151460/original/image-20161223-17310-3vz3y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">National Solar Thermal Test Facility generates experimental engineering data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sandialabs/5058559942">Sandia Labs/Randy Montoya</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>Initiatives like these are a hopeful down payment on results that usually bear fruit years later. Through the efforts of the <a href="https://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/sunshot-initiative">SunShot</a> and <a href="https://energy.gov/eere/wind/wind-energy-technologies-office">wind R&D</a> programs at DOE and private firms, for example, the United States now generates more than <a href="https://www.eia.gov/energy_in_brief/article/wind_power.cfm">three times as much electricity from wind</a> and <a href="http://www.eia.gov/renewable/">four times as much from solar</a> as it did in 2008. That’s because the cost for renewables has come down rapidly – <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-06/wind-and-solar-are-crushing-fossil-fuels">solar costs 1/150th what it did in the 1970s</a>.</p>
<p>One example of a problem that we understand much better than we did 30 years ago as a result of governmental scientific investments is global climate change. Due to sustained federal investments in Earth observations, geophysical research and global circulation modeling, we now know <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/study-sheds-new-insights-into-global-warming-trends">how much the world has warmed</a>, how rapidly mountain glaciers and <a href="http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2016/12/arctic-and-antarctic-at-record-low-levels/">Arctic ice are retreating</a>, how much and where <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/bams">precipitation is changing, how much soil moisture is reducing</a> and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2888">what it would take to avoid significant global climate disruption</a>. Long-term, depoliticized investments in this kind of measurement science are crucial to understanding global change and the fate of the planet. </p>
<h2>Science opportunities for President Trump</h2>
<p>Although President-elect Trump seems to <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-post-truth-election-clicks-trump-facts-67274">find little value in facts</a>, he clearly wishes to reinvigorate the U.S. economy. He cannot do so without improving access to high-quality STEM education and accelerating U.S. investments in science, technology and innovation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151661/original/image-20170103-18665-bv3rdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151661/original/image-20170103-18665-bv3rdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151661/original/image-20170103-18665-bv3rdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151661/original/image-20170103-18665-bv3rdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151661/original/image-20170103-18665-bv3rdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151661/original/image-20170103-18665-bv3rdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151661/original/image-20170103-18665-bv3rdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151661/original/image-20170103-18665-bv3rdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Science advances can provide the boost in manufacturing Trump and Pence are after.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump/6af5a1e14529463c829fb41f5e173b31/2/0">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Scientific advice could also provide President-elect Trump with some good ideas for revitalizing manufacturing in the United States, which <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/trade">he’s pledged to do</a>. Indeed, the current President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) produced an excellent report on <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/PCAST/amp20_report_final.pdf">accelerating U.S. advanced manufacturing</a> in 2014.</p>
<p>President Trump can use science and innovation to achieve his goal to restore American greatness, whether it is through launching a new “moonshot”-type initiative or creating advanced manufacturing jobs. With history as a guide, appointing a respected science advisor and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy will help him accomplish his goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly Sims Gallagher previously received funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and recently was awarded a new grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. She previously worked as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.</span></em></p>Innovation is a huge part of economic growth – and the White House needs to be well-informed on science and tech issues when setting goals and budgets. Here’s how presidents get up to speed.Kelly Sims Gallagher, Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy and Director of Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at The Fletcher School, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.