Making Science Relevant to Policy and Decision-making

Science is often used to support decisions that have profound economic, social and environmental impacts. Good decision-making follows from having clear preferences for what is to be achieved (policy aims) and using science to evaluate potential means of reaching those aims (policy instruments). 

This credit-bearing, 10 week course will provide a practical guide to implementing policy-led science for decision-making, and will examine the benefits and potential drawbacks of following such an approach in the public, private and charitable sectors.  An emphasis on translating policy aims into tractable scientific questions is a particularly distinctive, and possibly unique, feature among the University's courses on science and policy.

The course is organised by Innogen co-Director Alan Raybould through The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and is available to postgraduate students in many Schools and Colleges across the university. The course is fully online and lectures will be delivered by Alan Raybould, Joyce Tait and Chris Warkup from Innogen, along with guest lecturers from Edinburgh and elsewhere.

I became fascinated by the use of science in decision-making while working in regulatory affairs at Syngenta. Often collecting more data made regulatory decisions harder not easier. This happens when the aims of regulations are not clear; for example what harmful effects are they trying to prevent, what beneficial effects are they trying to encourage and how are potential harmful and beneficial effects to be balanced in decision-making.  This course emphasises that science cannot remove the need to make difficult choices about the aims of decisions.  We cannot “follow the science”; we must choose where we want go and use science to help us get there

Alan Raybould

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Innogen

Making Science Relevant to Policy and Decision-making