How Does Government Listen to Scientists‪?‬

This Palgrave Policy Essential draws together recent developments in the field of science in government, policy and public debate. Practice and academic insights from a wide variety of fields have advanced in the last decade and this book provides a consolidated survey of the established but scattered insights into the provision of deeply technical expertise in policy making: models of climate or disease, risk, Artificial Intelligence and ethics amongst others. It goes on to link this to emerging ideas about futures thinking, public engagement, narrative, and the role of values and sentiment alongside the place of scientific and scholarly insights in public decision-making and debate. The book offers an accessible overview aimed at practitioners, policy-makers looking to understand how to work with researchers, researchers looking to work with policy-makers, and the increasing numbers and types of “brokers” - people working at the interface, in science advice, public engagement and communication of science, and in expert support to decision-making in the public and private sectors.
Claire Craig CBE is Chief Science Policy Officer at the Royal Society. She previously led the Government Office for Science on behalf of two UK Government Chief Scientific Advisors. She established the UK’s Foresight programme of science-based strategic futures projects, covering topics from flood risk to cognitive enhancement and was a Faculty member of the World Economic Forum. Claire has worked extensively on strategy and science in decision-making. Her career includes periods at McKinsey & Co and the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit. She helped launch a hands-on science centre in Bristol, and has held Board roles at a variety of research and teaching institutions including the Council of King’s College London and the Governing Body of Newnham College Cambridge.