Pollution on land inevitably ends up in the sea. Policy makers must stop working in silos and instead consider the indirect consequences human impacts on land have for marine environments.
A fishing boat launching into South African waters at dawn.
Justin Klusener Photos
South Africa’s ocean information management system is helping to mitigate security and environmental risks.
Legislators make policy based on the information at hand, which isn’t always the latest scientific findings.
Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald via Getty Images
Researchers want real-world impact. Lawmakers want programs that work. The public wants to benefit from taxpayer-funded research. Building a bridge from academia to legislatures is key to all three.
The sum is greater than the parts when researchers build an ensemble from multiple coordinated but independent models.
Matteo Chinazzi
Policymakers rely on models during uncertain times to figure out how their choices could affect the future. Over the pandemic, an ensemble of many COVID-19 models outperformed any one alone.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Labor’s new centre will let it trial some new policies. But the government is not yet open to doing cost-benefit analysis on all major projects – like $240 million for a new AFL stadium.
Policy-makers lack an understanding of how to assess research and the quality of that research. We need to do better during the COVID-19 pandemic and during future health crises.
(Louis Reed/Unsplash)
In most countries, ignorance about how to use evidence properly to inform decision-making has led to missteps during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s how to do better.
Children play on a trampoline in Alexandra, Johannesburg.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
The changes that society needs, such as preventing adolescent pregnancies, will not happen until researchers can use their findings to influence policy change.
Scientists talk about their research because they want their expertise to guide real-world decisions.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
A survey of over a thousand scientists reveals that their goal when communicating about their work is to help the rest of us make evidence-based decisions that draw on scientific findings.
In a technology-driven and interconnected world, the speed of creation and dissemination of knowledge makes it even more central to economic growth that it was fifty years ago.
www.shutterstock.com
Four scientists talk through the ways they now build outreach into their work as a way to spread their research’s impact – something that wasn’t the norm for past generations of academics.
In Papua, the country’s easternmost province, reports say at least 61 children have died from malnutrition and measles. Photo of mother and child in a church in Asmat district, taken on January 22, 2018.
Reuters/via Antara News Agency
The organisation Sense about Science advocates for openness and honesty about research, and ensures the public interest in sound science and evidence is recognised in public debates and policymaking.
You can’t keep a good scientist down.
Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash
President Trump’s first year was a rough one for scientists and others who value truth and expertise. Many rallied to the cause, while others used research to make the case for the value of science.
It’s good for scientists to work in glass laboratories.
Len Rubenstein
Science isn’t cold, hard facts uncovered by emotionless robots. Acknowledging how and where values play a role promotes a more realistic view and can advance science’s reputation for reliability.
Neuroscience can help incarcerated brains.
Donald Tong
Hollywood pushes a fantasy version of what neuroscience can do in the courtroom. But the field does have real benefits to offer, right now: solid evidence on what would improve prisons.
Unless we design research programs to look at why people would rather stay on country than receive effective health treatments, Aboriginal health may not improve.
Dan Peled/AAP
Like all good health care, improving health in remote settings requires an evidence base. But forcing all research questions into the randomised controlled trial model is not the answer.
To conserve Earth’s remarkable species, such as the violet sabrewing, we must also defend the importance of science.
Jeremy Kerr
To conserve Earth’s remarkable species, we must also defend the importance of science and scientific integrity.
Display of Colombia’s main export countries on the “Globe of Economic Complexity” application provided by The Center for International Development (CID), Harvard University
CID, Harvard University