Project News

Presidential Science Advisor Series

The Center launched its lecture series “Policy, Politics, and Science in the White House:  Conversations with Presidential Science Advisors” in February with a public forum featuring Dr. John Marburger, science advisor to President George W. Bush.  Dr. John Gibbons, science advisor to President Bill Clinton (1993-98) spoke in late April.  Also included in the series last spring was a talk by Dr. Robert Palmer, former Democratic Staff Director of the House Committee on Science.

The series will continue in the fall with the following talks, all of which begin at 7:00 pm on the CU-Boulder campus:

• September 12, 2005 - Dr. Edward David, science advisor to Richard Nixon 1970-73, Old Main Chapel.
• October 5, 2005 - Dr. Neal Lane, science advisor to Bill Clinton 1998-2001, Eaton Humanities Room 1B50.
• October 24, 2005 - Dr. Donald Hornig, science advisor to Lyndon Johnson 1963-69, Old Main Chapel. 
• November 29, 2005 - Dr. George Keyworth, science advisor to Ronald Reagan 1981-86, Old Main Chapel.

All talks are free and open to the public.  For more information about the series, as well as transcripts and audio and video recordings of each presentation, visit the series website.  To be placed on the science advisor mailing list and receive email notices of upcoming events click here.  Each science advisor forum will be broadcast on Boulder Municipal Channel 8 television station and also as a live webcast – check the Channel 8 schedule for more information.

Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate (SPARC)

SPARC is organizing two workshops this summer to explore priority setting for scientific research under the Climate Change Science Plan (CCSP) to meet the needs of policymakers.

The first workshop, “Decision Support and Carbon Cycle Science: Practical Strategies to Reconciling the Supply of and Demand for Carbon Cycle Science,” was held June 13-14 to share knowledge across areas of expertise and develop a preliminary research agenda for creating "usable carbon cycle science."  The goal of the workshop was to foster an interested community of researchers and develop a research agenda with the ultimate aim of improving the usefulness of carbon cycle science for the broader community of decision makers.  The workshop’s objectives were to:

• Survey existing knowledge about successful decision support using carbon cycle science
• Enable cross-disciplinary transfer of knowledge about how to design and implement research agendas, projects and programs so that they can effectively serve users' needs
• Develop a research and practice agenda for programs and scientists in carbon cycle science who are interested in serving the needs of users outside of the scientific community.

For more information contact Lisa Dilling (ldilling@cires.colorado.edu) or visit the workshop website.

The second workshop, “2005 Workshop on RISA Science Policy,” will be held August 15-17.  This workshop will compare and assess science policy decision making across the RISA (Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments) programs.  The RISA program is now 10 years old and has developed a significant body of experience in working to establish a two-way connection between decision makers and interdisciplinary science and assessment. This experience provides a rich resource for drawing lessons from the various RISA projects on how science priorities might be set, research implemented, and the resulting output transferred to operational agencies in support of the needs of decision makers.

The workshop will bring together ~30 participants from each of the RISA teams to address questions such as the following:

• How are stakeholders’ needs reflected in the research prioritization process?
• How are stakeholders’ needs assessed and evaluated?
• How does each RISA prioritize areas of research and assessment to which to devote its resources?
• How does each RISA evaluate its resource allocation decisions?

The overarching goal of the workshop is to distill from the RISA projects those processes, institutions and other conditions that facilitate making decisions about climate science research priorities that lead to useful information for decision makers. We will evaluate the extent to which climate science policy in the RISAs can serve as “a model that could guide some of the larger efforts within USGCRP.”

For more information contact Roger Pielke (pielke@cires.colorado.edu) or visit the workshop website.