The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has signed off on a letter that it will send to the Biden-Harris Administration calling for advancing public engagement with the sciences. Although the letter hasn’t been formally shared yet, members of the PCAST working group summarized its contents during a public meeting of PCAST on July 27, 2023.
The working group was motivated by two goals: provide the public with access to accurate and trusted scientific information and to facilitate dialogue between government R&D agencies, experts, and communities. There was a strong sense that actions needed to move beyond one-way science communication to two-way science engagement, emphasizing that there is need for more listening, not just talking.
The letter will reportedly offer two recommendations to the President:
Recommendation 1. Issue a clarion call to federal agencies to make science and technology communication and public engagement a core component of their mission and strategy. An essential pillar of this effort is ensuring that experts in participatory public engagement are included in agency senior-level policy development and decision-making processes.
Recommendation 2. Establish a new office to support Federal agencies in their continuing efforts to develop and build participatory public engagement and effective science and technology communications. This office should consist of individuals with a range of expertise who can partner with or be deployed to agencies, including assistance in the use of social science-informed techniques for participatory engagement and cutting-edge digital technologies. The U.S. Digital Service within the Office of Management and Budget and the 18F office within the Government Service Administration may be useful models for this proposed office.
ASTC is pleased to see this broad recognition of the importance of public engagement with science and an explicit call for incorporating public engagement in agency missions at the most senior level across the federal government. We also appreciate the acknowledgement that, as with other areas of science, effective public engagement depends upon having individuals with specific expertise.
The letter was developed by a working group of PCAST members, which included the following individuals:
- Saul Perlmutter (co-lead), Franklin W. & Karen Weber Professor of Physics and Director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, University of California, Berkeley; Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Vicki Sato (co-lead), Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School (retired)
- Phil Venables (co-lead), Chief Information Security Office, Google Cloud
- Lisa Cooper, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Equity in Health and Healthcare and Director of the Center for Health Equity, Johns Hopkins University
- Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft
- Jennifer Richeson, Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology and Director of the Social Perception and Communication Lab, Yale University
- Terence Tao, Professor and the James & Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
PCAST is an independent Federal Advisory Committee appointed by the President charged with making recommendations on science, technology, and innovation policy to the President and the White House. Its 28 current members are distinguished individuals from industry, academia, and non-profit organizations with a range of perspectives and expertise.
Additional Information:
- “PCAST Letter: Advancing Public Engagement with the Sciences,” Presentation from the PCAST Science Communications Working Group, July 27, 2023.
- President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.