Former Presidential Science Adviser John Marburger will give this year’s Bromley Lecture at George Washington University in Washington on April 29th.  The title is “Policy as Science” and this is the abstract:

Politics is a necessary ingredient of policy-making, but political acceptance does not assure policy success. Thinking of policy as science emphasizes features of policy-making and implementation needed for long term policy effectiveness. Identifying and strengthening these features in the processes of American science policy warrants a long term campaign that challenges the current advocacy-based approach. An emerging consensus on the need for a ’science of science policy’ suggests that such a campaign may be feasible.

This should be a good opportunity to see a more detailed description of what Dr. Marburger has in mind when he talks about science of science policy and how it matches up (or doesn’t match up) with what the National Science Foundation and the interagency working group have in mind.  For instance, it’s not immediately clear to me how the government hopes to take the research on innovation funded by the Science of Science Policy program at NSF and use it to improve “features of policy-making and implementation needed for long term policy effectiveness.”  In other words, while it’s nice to have a better understanding of how to measure innovative activity, it doesn’t necessarily connect to a better understanding of what policies would be effective in this area.

The Lecture will take place in the Linder Family Commons (1957 E Street NW, 6th Floor) on the George Washington University campus in Washington, D.C.  It will run from 5:30-7 pm