By Sheeva Azma
I was lucky to remotely attend the 2024 AAAS annual meeting, which was held in mid-February in Colorado. Thanks to my membership in the National Association for Science Writers, I got a press pass to attend as a journalist (for FREE!). I attended as many virtual science policy sessions as possible. My goal in recapping these sessions is to help my fellow scientists better understand where they can get involved in policy...and, attending these sessions, I learned a lot! Check out the full list of 2024 AAAS annual meeting recap blogs here, or all of my writing about various AAAS seminars I've attended here.
In this blog, I provide a recap of a session titled "Become an Advocate for Science Policy in Your Local Community" organized by Christopher Jackson and Taylor Spicer of Engineers and Scientists Acting Locally. Panelists included Arti Garg, founder and chair of ESAL, Clare Valentine of Western Resource Advocates, and Kristan Uhlenbrock of the Institute for Science & Policy at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in Denver, Colorado. Because I was a virtual attendee, I caught this session after it happened as an audio recording, and to be honest, I could not fully discern the speakers from each other. So, in my article, I chose to speak more generally about the panelists rather than try to figure out who said what.
Keep reading for the advice and insights on ways scientists can get into policy that I learned.
In what ways can scientists contribute to state and local policymaking?
According to the presenters, ESAL was founded to bridge the gap between science and policy. ESAL accomplishes this by helping people with STEM backgrounds build connections in local areas. They mentioned three ways they do this:
- Advocacy - Providing public comments, meeting with local officials, and/or volunteering with grassroots organizations
- Service - Serving on an advisory body such as a board or commission, working for local government, and/or runing for office
- Advising Government Officials - testify on hearings or serve on a working group, for instance
"Scientists know how to think about hard problems," one panelist stated. ESAL helps scientists develop skills and make a plan to engage in science advocacy on the local level to tackle tough policy challenges, especially those involving science.
Why scientist involvement improves policymaking
Scientists add knowledge and depth of expertise and make real-world implementation of laws more realistic.
Scientists' knowledge and expertise can be missing in lawmaking, especially when it comes to figuring out how to implement a law that involves science. For example, energy and environment issues are often discussed in most concrete detail on the local and state level, especially in terms of the details of what local/state governments and energy companies are doing.
Policymakers like to move quickly so that they can tell their constituents that things are happening, but the technology pathways are not always there, or the economics don't always align with the goals – for example, the costs may be very high, or there's a question about how to pay and fund things. Things figured out in the "real world" at the state agencies and commissions in the implementation stage can be messy. Scientists can play a role in all of these pieces.
Community engagement tips for policymaking scientists
Politics is relational and based on personal connections, so many issues involving science (examples include energy and environment issues) are not just a science issue, even if scientists originally discovered them. Furthermore, since policymaking is a human activity, there's also a lot of bias and self-interest involved. It's important to acknowledge the reality of the situation and think about everyone's perspectives, which makes policymaking a challenge.
Therefore, in practice, even if the policy issue is a substantially scientific one, science ends up being one of many "inputs" in policymaking, alongside things like values, and economic, labor, and other concerns. Community engagement is a huge piece of the policy puzzle, especially in the environment sphere. Government has to work to put communities first, though this work can be a bit messy. Sometimes, local communities do not want to be engaged, or they are left out. Coal communities are not always part of clean energy transition conversations, the panelists noted. However, all stakeholders must be engaged and lifted up for the greatest policy success.
Scientists can build trust and connect with the greater community through participation in working groups and task forces. There are also local and national nonprofits where scientists can get involved on issues of importance to them.
Building trust takes a long time and can only happen by practicing community-building skills. This doesn't always go as well as planned. For example, a panelist noted, you might go to a meeting and talk too much. Small things can help; even finding the smallest thing in common with policymakers and the community can help a lot. There's not one correct way to engage in policymaking, though it does take time and effort regardless of whatever path you take.
The panelists reiterated that policy settings differ from science settings. "You've got to be a bit of a chameleon" to adapt to the different settings, said one panelist. Negotiations and arguments are part of science, but you have to "push back" on some of the things you're taught to do in academia to advance policymaking toward the shared goal of a workable, science-informed real-world policy implementation.
What missing skills do scientists bring to policymaking?
What can scientists bring from scientific thinking that is different than others who are not trained in science? The panelists named a few:
- Scientists' critical thinking approach helps: curiosity, asking more questions, and digging a little bit deeper. The process of understanding in science is useful in policymaking.
- Scientists are a little bit better with uncertainty than perhaps other fields that have certainty in them. Seeking certainty in the policy process makes things complicated.
- An amazing trait in policymaking is being able to analyze something relentlessly. Combining this trait with a willingness to be seen as someone who will ask questions, even if the questions seem dumb, can be powerful, since there are people who may also not understand fully but are afraid to ask questions.
Tips for engaging in local science policy
- When working with marginalized groups, make sure to give folks information and the time to get up to speed on a topic, since they may not have had enough resources to do independent research.
- Connections and networking can help you. If you don't have a relationship or connection in some issue area, find someone who does and connect with them or ask them to introduce you to others in their network.
- Have empathy for people who complain. Sometimes people step up to the microphone at city council meetings and complain and yell. Rather than countering or trying to kick them out of the meeting, be empathetic. They may have not been heard, and helping people feel heard and connecting them with resources to help them helps move things forward.
- Once you've been engaged in science policy for a while, you'll know what types of policy solutions are "band-aids" versus actual solutions.
- "Design thinking" is an idea from the tech world which emphasizes a problem-centered, inquiry-based approach. Design thinking can be useful in community engagement involvement
- If you've successfully participated in local government engagement, consider submitting a short blurb about your experience to ESAL where they will publish it as a "postcard." View ESAL postcard submission guidelines here and published postcards here.
I found this to be a great session and an especially great complement to the sessions I attended about how to get into science policy and science-informed policymaking for state governments.
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Read all of the AAAS 2024 Annual Meeting recap blogs here! You can also improve your science communication and science policy skills by checking out Fancy Comma's FREE resources.
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