Science Policy

| www.bmgn-lchr.nl | e-issn 2211-2898 | print issn 0165-0505 Robert-Jan Wille, Mannen van de microscoop. De laboratoriumbiologie op veldtocht in Nederland en Indië, 1840-1910 (Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2019, 365 pp., isbn 9789460043796). Hoe ontstaat een wetenschappelijke discipline? Om antwoord te geven op die vraag kan men enerzijds bestuderen hoe methoden, theorieën, instrumenten of onderzoeksvragen zijn samengevoegd. Anderzijds kan men zich buigen over de politieke, culturele of sociale factoren die de oprichting van onderzoeksinstellingen,-banen en-financiering in de hand hebben gewerkt.

The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) Annual Report 2019 provides an overview of IAP activities in 2019, with specific sections on activities by affiliated regional networks AASSA, EASAC, IANAS, and NASAC. It also gives evidence of IAP’s focus on providing science advice and promoting cooperation and capacity building among its membership - the world’s merit-based academies of science, medicine and engineering. It also reviews IAP's activities in such areas as science education and biosecurity.
You can find it online at https://www.interacademies.org/publication/iap-annual-report-2019.

Science policies emphasizing the advanced qualification of human resources, together with democratizing access to science and internationalizing the science base, are shown to help
build the conditions needed to drive brain gain over time.
Exploring a new set of data for the period 1970–2010 in Portugal, this paper focuses on the analysis of flows of doctorates, with the ultimate goal of helping to promote the absorptive capacity that emerging regions and countries worldwide need to acquire to learn how to use science for economic and social development. It shows a notable process of brain gain by the end of this period and, above all, it provides a dynamic approach to the cumulative process of building knowledge-based societies. The results show the need to consider the co-evolution of brain gain, brain drain and brain circulation over time and space. In addition, they suggest the
importance of certain major counter-intuitive policy instruments to facilitate the co-evolution of human capital formation and research capacity building. In the case of Portugal, these instruments have included a centralized program of research grants, research careers independent of traditional
academic career tracks, and a diversified system of funding research units and institutions based on research assessments through international peer reviews.

Epistemic division of labor pervades modern democracies, and we both do and should rely upon expertise in making decisions.  But how can reliance on expertise be squared with the need for democratic representation and accountability?  Building on the account of values in science from the first talk, this talk will articulate how we can in practice hold experts accountable in democratic contexts while protecting the integrity of science.  How to assess expertise is central to this challenge, as are institutional forms for structuring expert advice in governance.

Avant le dernier « sprint final » pour remporter la prochaine présidentielle qui se gagnera en partie sur le Web, un grand vainqueur s'impose d'ores et déjà au coeur de la campagne électorale : l'usage immodéré des plateformes de Data Intelligence américaines par toutes les écuries politiques en lice.

The Arab world stretches from the Indian Ocean in the
East to the Atlantic Ocean in the West. Twenty Arab
countries occupy the southern and eastern shores of the
Mediterranean and border the Red Sea.
It is an area of historical importance, as it is the birthplace
of the world’s three Abrahamic religions. For centuries, the
region was a hub of groundbreaking science. It is of
contemporary strategic importance owing to its location
and a wealth of subterranean natural resources, essentially
in the form of oil and natural gas – 32% of the world’s
known natural gas reserves are to be found in the region –
as well as phosphate: Morocco alone possesses more than
half of the world’s reserves.
The region encompasses remarkable cultural similarities as
well as highly distinct political and economic systems with a
heterogeneous social fabric. Its peoples share a commonality
of language, history and religion but their societies are at
variance in terms of natural wealth, governance, currency,
traditions and socio-economic systems.
The period since the UNESCO Science Report 2005
appeared has been one of mixed fortunes for Arab
countries. The region has witnessed continuing political
upheaval and military conflict in the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank, Iraq, Lebanon and Sudan. The oil-exporting
Arab states of Kuwait, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have enjoyed a
short-lived downpour of revenue resulting from the hike
in international oil prices to a peak of more than US$ 140 a
barrel in July 2008. Conversely, oil-importing countries
such as Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco have faced fiscal
difficulties due to their mounting national energy bills, a
situation compounded by the associated rise in the cost of
imported food commodities.
The subsequent plummet in oil prices, which fell to about
US$ 40 by the end of 2008 before recovering slightly in
2009, has brought this exceptional situation to an end.
It has also highlighted the volatility of oil prices and the
need for Arab oil-exporting countries to diversify their
economies in future.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, the same period also
witnessed renewed interest on the part of many Arab
countries in reinvigorating science and technology (S&T)
and higher education, with the launch of a number of topdown
initiatives to support education and research. Some
of these will be highlighted in the present chapter. A
handful of countries have also approved plans to allocate
more resources to research and development (R&D),
among them Egypt, Tunisia and Qatar.
The current global economic recession may not affect
Arab states in the immediate term, as the banking sector
in the majority of Arab states is highly regulated and only
loosely linked to international money markets. However,
the economic fallout will ultimately be felt by all,
negatively affecting foreign direct investment flowing into
Arab countries and real estate markets. This will cause a
slowdown in economic growth and a rise in
unemployment in the region. Arab countries reliant on
exporting goods and services to the USA and European
Union (EU) and those that normally receive aid from these
quarters may suffer. Even before the economic recession
emerged in the last quarter of 2008, unemployment in the
Arab world was higher than in any other part of the world,
at around 12%. Young job-seekers constitute over 40% of
the region’s unemployed (UNESCWA, 2007).
Despite the international economic uncertainty, Arab
states will have no choice but to stimulate science,
technology and innovation (STI), together with the
education sector, if only to overcome some lingering
problems like food, water and energy insecurity. Arab
countries can also learn from the remarkable socioeconomic
progress of countries such as Brazil, China,
India, Malaysia and Mexico, due in part to S&T.

India-EU relations date back to the early 1960s. Since then, the partnership has grown extensively and resulted in a strategic partnership which covers numerous areas. One of the most important areas of cooperation is Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).
Several bibliometric studies have shown that the annual number of India-Europe co-publications has increased steeply over the last decade. In fact, this figure has quadrupled in this time. Europe is the most important co-publication partner for India, even ahead of the US. India and the EU have become important research and innovation partners: for instance, India participated in 181 FP7 projects involving 305 Indian participants receiving about €35.8 m from the European Commission.
Still, bilateral activities between India and individual EU Member States and associated countries outweigh multilateral cooperation. Yet, projects such as INNO INDIGO and INDIGO POLICY funded under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) have
made a visible contribution in building the international dimension of the European Research Area (ERA).
The INNO INDIGO and INDIGO POLICY projects, which were launched in 2013, brought together a multi-level group of stakeholders from Europe and India in order to strengthen and further enhance the STI collaboration between the EU and India.
In this publication, some of the major achievements and contributions of the INDIGO projects to the Indo-European STI partnership are presented. These include for example the joint funding schemes for Indo-European research projects in various thematic areas of importance to both regions such
as health, energy and water; publications aimed at supporting evidence-based decision making resulting from sound analytical research on topics such as innovation landscapes and STI policies in India and Europe, technology transfer and networking initiatives aiming at linking Indian and
European communities in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The Communicating Climate Risk toolkit draws together best practice on the effective communication of climate information from across STEM, social sciences, and arts and humanities. It provides users with insights, recommendations, and tools for all forms of climate-related communication and decision-making, and identifies open problems.

SUMMARY
The purpose of this research was to establish the features of scientific activity in the field of natural sciences in Croatia, using a bibliometric analysis of 8436 scientific papers with a Croatian address published in natural sciences journals indexed in WoS-SCI database from 1991 to 2005.
The first part of the dissertation (chapters 1, 2 and 3) defines the role of bibliometrics and scientometrics as well as the review process in evaluating scientific performance. The role of a journal as the main communication channel in natural sciences is described, and an overview of the most important secondary sources of information for the field of natural sciences is presented. The creators of scientific information as well as scientific cooperation are described. Scientific productivity and scientific impact are defined, as well as the indicators that determine them. Basic guidelines of science policy in Croatia are commented on. Strategies of science and education development are described. The legal status of science and the systems of evaluation of scientific performance are defined.
Since previous means of the assessment of scientific performance have not proven satisfactory in Croatia, in the goals of the research (chapter 4) it is stated that the aim of the research was to point out the need to define a new model of evaluation and stimulation of scientific work in the field of natural sciences.
The methodology of the research is described in chapter 5. It is stated that the research sample consisted of the papers published in natural sciences journals indexed in the WoS from 1991 to 2005, on which at least one author had a Croatian institutional address and that data on the citation of those papers was also retrieved from the WoS. The journal status was determined using its IF from the JCR Science Edition database for 2005. Journals represented in the Current Contents database were analysed.
Chapter 6 shows the results of the research and the discussion. Data retrieved with the analysis of the scientific activity using two indicators, scientific productivity and its scientific impact is shown and interpreted. Scientific productivity is shown by the number of papers in the WoS-SCI database in the observed 15-year period, and the scientific impact of those papers was determined with the citation analysis. As additional indicators, trends in co-authorship as well as international cooperation were determined. Besides the position of
scientific activity in the field of natural sciences as a whole, characteristics of scientific activity were determined for specific fields of natural sciences: biology, physics, geosciences, chemistry, mathematics and interdisciplinary field. The most productive fields of natural sciences for the observed period were chemistry (33.9% of all papers), physics (27.3% of all papers) and biology (24.9% of all papers). The highest impact of papers was observed in the field of physics (on average 10.7 citations per paper) and geosciences (on average 8.1 citations per paper), and the lowest in the field of mathematics (on average 2.6 citations per paper). The scientific activity of Croatian institutions whose addresses were indicated on the papers in the examined body of natural sciences journals was also analysed. The Ruđer Bošković Institute, Faculty of Science in Zagreb and the Institute of Physics were shown to be the centres of excellence. When it came to universities, the University of Zagreb and the University of Rijeka stood out.
Chapter 7 comments on the existing system of the assessment of scientific performance and points out its shortcomings, since that system is not adapted to the specificities of various scientific disciplines. Based on the specificity of scientific publishing in certain fields of natural sciences determined by this research, some of the guidelines for possible changes in the existing system of evaluating scientific performance are offered. Specifically, it is pointed out that scientific output of different fields and subfields of natural sciences should not be compared. Furthermore, using determined conditions and trends in scientific activity, possible directions of natural sciences development are defined, based on which Croatia could become recognisable in the international scientific environment.
The conclusion (chapter 8) points out that the results of the research could help institutions and bodies responsible for creating science policy devise more objective tools for the assessment of scientific performance in the field of natural sciences and in planning the development of natural sciences. Systematic bibliometric and scientometric research could influence an improvement of the scientific status of Croatia in the academic environment. The results of those researches could ease decisions on the evaluation and development of science, that is, on planning a national science policy.

Keywords: natural sciences, Croatia, bibliometric analysis, scientific productivity, scientific impact, evaluation of scientific work, development of science, scientific policy

Soviet policy-makers, in order to aid and abet industrialisation, seem to have chosen science as an agent for development. Soviet science, mainly through the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, was driving the Soviet industrial development and a key element of the preparation of human capital through social programmes and politechnisation of the society. This provided a broad set of the skills, including management and governance, multidisciplinary synthesis, and analytical ability which were required to ensure sustainable technical and industrial development. This process of human capital development in the USSR could not take place without a particular Soviet social policy which was designed by the Party and Government and included the development of science, education, healthcare in synchronisation. The success was achieved due to the implementation of the large programme for human capital development in whose preparation both basic research and education played the critical role. S...

Preorder now at: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-value-of-science-in-space-exploration-9780190069063

The Value of Science in Space Exploration provides a rigorous assessment of the value of scientific knowledge and understanding in the context of contemporary space exploration. It argues that traditional spaceflight rationales are deficient, and that the strongest defense of spaceflight comes from its potential to produce intrinsically and instrumentally valuable knowledge and understanding. It engages with contemporary epistemology to articulate an account of the intrinsic value of scientific knowledge and understanding. It also parleys with recent work in science policy and social philosophy of science to characterize the instrumental value of scientific research, identifying space research as an effective generator of new knowledge and understanding.

These values found an ethical obligation to engage in scientific examination of the space environment. This obligation has important implications for major space policy discussions, including debates surrounding planetary protection policies, space resource exploitation, and human space settlement. Whereas planetary protection policies are currently employed to prevent biological contamination only of sites of interest in the search for extraterrestrial life, it contends that all sites of interest to space science ought to be protected. Meanwhile , space resource exploitation and human space settlement would result in extensive disruption or destruction of pristine space environments. The overall ethical value of these environments in the production of new knowledge and understanding is greater than their value as commercial or real commodities, and thus, exploitation and settlement of space should be avoided until the scientific community adequately understands these environments.

In this work, we present a proposal for developing a Science, Technology and Innovation Information Platform (STIIP) for the Republic of Namibia. Its purpose is to guide decisions for the formulation, implementation and monitoring of STI policies and policy instruments. Such a system must tap the entire system of STI information in the broad sense. STI watch cannot seek to identify future research and innovation developments, independently of the past and current developments and of the material and human resources devoted to STI activities.
We present theoretical, practical and strategic arguments which justify the need for Namibia to invest in human and financial resources for developing the mentioned platform. We examine the boundary conditions of a small-economy innovation system. We show that these types of innovation systems require well-developed policy schemes based on evidences and integrated efforts in order to enhance the development of domestic R&D activities, innovations and entrepreneurship. We show that in a small-economy innovation system, opportunities can be easily lost due to inefficient collaboration and disagreements concerning goal-setting.
We show that a necessary condition for developing a good STI policy is the requirement of a country to have a long-term political stability and government effectiveness. Namibia had already reached this requirement. We analyse the long-term behaviour of Namibian STI scientific production in terms of articles published in mainstream journals. We show that the last figures are modest compared with the numbers of publications of other similar economies (e.g. the productivity of Botswana is 2.5 times larger). We analyse the co-publication patterns of Namibia with other countries, the national institutional productivity of the major national research centres and the distribution of papers among the different scientific fields. We present some objective and subjective international indicators on innovation and competitiveness. We show that Namibia’s performance –according to the previous indicators- shows several weaknesses, most of them based on the quality of the education system.
We present a list of information requirements that were established by the National Policy Guidelines on Research, Science and Technology (GN 1999), the Research, Science and Technology Act (2004) and a recent concept note (GRN 2013a). Based on these requirements we propose an information platform that should have five different modules: (a) STI Indicators Module; (b) STI policies Module; (c) Research and Innovation Programmes and Projects Module; (d) Curriculum Vitae Module and (e) STI Global Module. We describe the technical characteristics of each individual module; the type of information that should be produced and published; the fluxes of information among the different institutions in Namibia and, finally, within the 5 Annexes we describe, in great detail, the characteristics of all the electronic forms that should be included in the STI indicators module.
We present a series of recommendations for the implementation of each individual module and suggestions for the organization of different training workshops, to foster endogenous capacities for designing, implementing and monitoring the STI Information Platform in Namibia.

This paper analyses the development of a new policy instrument as an innovation process in
governance. Using the innovation journey concept to track the process in which ‘emissions trading’
emerges as a novel configuration in environmental governance shows how the policy instrument
develops dynamics of its own, partly independently of policy problems and goals. These dynamics cut
across governance domains, from air pollution policy in the USA to climate policy in the European
Union. Interactions across science, policy development and the governance domains in which the
instrument is applied prove to be critical for the transition between phases: from options to first
developments; to experiments with a prototype; further diffusion; and, finally, the formation of a
transnational policy regime. Key factors are openings in existing governance structures, establishment
of linkages with contexts of implementation and the generation of momentum through the ‘carbon
industry’ as an emerging service economy.

This book addresses a significant gap in the literature and provides a comprehensive overview of the sociology of forensic science. Drawing on a wealth of international
research and case studies, this book explores the intersection of science, technology, law and society and examines the production of forensic knowledge.
This book explores a range of key topics such as:
• the integration of science into police work and criminal investigation;
• the relationship between law and science;
• ethical and social issues raised by new forensic technology including DNA analysis;
• media portrayals of forensic science;
•forensic policy and the international agenda for forensic science.

This Impact Report identifies and summarises the diverse impacts, resulting from the £500m of UK funding of Science and Technology in 2013, using numerous quantitative metrics and short case study extracts.  It shows how the varied impacts of a national science and technology organization and its many funded programmes can be annually identified, captured, tracked, and summarised in a public document.

The report was produced for, and by, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) -  the UK Research Council responsible for funding: (1) all UK astronomy, particle and nuclear physics research, (2) related UK science and technology facilities (e.g. as Harwell and Daresbury), (3) the UK contribution to international science (e.g. CERN, international telescopes and space missions), (4) innovation and business spin-off programmes, and (5) UK public engagement activities.

The Report was co-researched and co-authored by the STFC Impact Team, including myself while Impact Evaluation Manager in 2013, with Dr. Claire Dougan-McCallie (lead author/Head of Impact) and Jenny Beard, with additional input from senior managers, and many data and case study contributions from other key managers across STFC.

Varied key impacts are identified and reported including:

• Research amongst the best (by citation impact) in astronomy, nuclear and particle physics.
• Supported research of 226 Principal Investigators in 70 universities, led to 1,100 peer-reviewed papers in 2012.
• Facilities (the Diamond Light Source, ISIS and CLF) were used in 2012/13 by over 4,200 unique users , in over 2,400 experiments, producing over 1,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

• Technology from CERN benefited the UK economy by over £100 billion every year.
• Funding the development of the UK’s space, internet and computer animation industries, returned over £500 billion to the UK economy per annum.
• Funded Innovation Campuses hosted over 230 enterprises and supported over 5,000 jobs.
• UK industry won £43 million in contracts from the international subscriptions funded, and had accumulated a total of £150 million since 2005.

• Funded research inspired future generations to study STEM subjects, attracting 90% of UK undergraduates to study physics, funded 782 PhD students  and 16,800 student training days.
• Between 2009 to 2012 public engagement programmes engaged people on 58 million occasions, with 2 million people engaged in face-to-face activities in 2013 alone.

The Vilnius conference 2013 aimed at bringing together representatives of the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) from all around Europe to improve the ways in which Human and Social Sciences may impact the new European research framework programme, Horizon 2020. We were delighted by the strong words of support by the Commissioner at the conference, quoted above. This report represents a comprehensive summary of all activities before and during the conference. Remarkable as it may have been, the Vilnius conference was only a moment in time during an on-going process of shaping Horizon 2020. Thus, the following executive summary sets the stage with a reflection on the political context of the conference, before describing aims and scopes of the event. Some general results and recommendations conclude this section as well as observations of what happened since.

Space-based experiments today can uniquely address important questions related to the fundamental laws of Nature. In particular, high-accuracy physics experiments in space can test relativistic gravity and probe the physics beyond the Standard Model; they can perform direct detection of gravitational waves and are naturally suited for precision investigations in cosmology and astroparticle physics. In addition, atomic physics has recently shown substantial progress in the development of optical clocks and atom interferometers. If placed in space, these instruments could turn into powerful high-resolution quantum sensors greatly benefiting fundamental physics. We discuss the current status of space-based research in fundamental physics, its discovery potential, and its importance for modern science. We offer a set of recommendations to be considered by the upcoming National Academy of Sciences' Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics. In our opinion, the Decadal Survey shoul...

Este libro intenta demostrar cómo se genera el cambio tecnológico
y la forma en que operan los procesos mediante los cuales se introducen mejoras tecnológicas en la actividad económica. En general,
el cambio tecnológico resulta ser un proceso mucho más complejo de
lo que suelen mostrar los modelos simplificados de la economía: las
formas de generación de tecnología e innovación en la industria farmacéutica suelen ser muy distintas de las de las tecnologías de la información y de las de la industria aeronáutica.
A través de los años, los escritos sobre los procesos de innovación
tecnológica de Nathan Rosenberg se han transformado en clásicos
de la literatura especializada. Han recibido elogiosos comentarios
por su claridad y lucidez y hasta se han transformado en textos obligados -aun en nuestro país- en los cursos de política y gestión de la
ciencia y la tecnología. Instituciones como la OECD suelen citar tanto
sus trabajos técnicos como sus obras más generales. Entre estas últimas se deben destacar Perspectives on Technology (1976), Inside
the Black Box (1982) y Technology and the Persuit of Economic
Growíh (1989), en colaboración con David C. Mowery.

The thesis presents a reformative criticism of science funding by peer review. The criticism is
based on epistemological scepticism, regarding the ability of scientific peers, or any other agent, to have access to sufficient information regarding the potential of proposed projects at the time of funding. The scepticism is based on the complexity of factors contributing to the merit of scientific projects, and the rate at which the parameters of this complex system change their values. By constructing models of different science funding mechanisms, a construction supported by historical evidence, computational simulations show that in a significant subset of cases it would be better to select research projects by a lottery mechanism than by selection based on peer review. This last result is used to create a template for an alternative funding mechanism that combines the merits of peer review with the benefits of random allocation, while noting that this alternative is not so far removed from current practice as may first appear.

we present the results of a baseline analysis of the needs of the professionals working at the interface of science and foreign policy. We combine qualitative and quantitative data from desk research, interviews, participant observation and, most importantly, an open, anonymous online survey. The 130 answers to the survey constitute a novel source of primary data in the science diplomacy research
arena. The results help us better understand the population of science diplomacy practitioners, their goals, practices, challenges and needs as well as their views on the label ‘science diplomacy’. The analysis will inform S4D4C’s work on training and knowledge resources. In allowing for more targeted governance, the results are also relevant for science diplomacy-related policy-making in the EU and beyond.

Biologists increasingly use marketing strategies to promote their results, obtain funding, and influence decisionmakers, but this development can compromise public perceptions of their objectivity and prevent the effective communication of reliable scientific knowledge. Responsible and effective communication is particularly important in this era of biotechnological innovation and global environmental change, when knowledge is often uncertain and rapidly evolving and can have huge consequences for society. Although scientists and science journalists carefully evaluate scientific results, they more freely choose rhetorical elements and, in particular, their metaphors, despite the value-laden judgments that often accompany these choices. We therefore argue that metaphors should be carefully chosen and evaluated alongside empirical evidence, because they shape data interpretation and how science influences society. Here, we propose guidelines for the responsible use of metaphors in science writing and communication.