Making the Voice of Reason Heard

The “expert panel” study is a mainstay of the policy advisory processes of many national science academies. Such studies have been effective because, when done well, they are models of reason, balance, and independence, and thus they command unique credibility. Via expert panel assessments, academies have indeed been able to speak scientific truth to power. The Council of Canadian Academies – founded only four years ago and modeled closely on the National Research Council of the U.S. National Academies – has sought to institutionalize the expert panel method in Canada. Examples will be given of the considerable impact that several Council studies have already had on policy dialogue and decisions. Some lessons will be drawn as to what works, and why. But is this tried and true method the way of the future? As Al Gore has argued eloquently, there is underway “an assault on reason” not only in political affairs, but in society more generally. Certainly the “expert” has become less trusted. And the compressed attention span wrought by information technology militates powerfully for speed at the expense of depth. In the “twitter” world, quick and dirty wins. This challenges the basic precepts of the expert panel process – i.e., elite consensus based on careful sifting of the evidence, exhaustively documented. How, therefore, should our institutions adapt so that their voices continue to be heard as they speak scientific truth to power?