Values in Science Advice: Necessities and Limits

The presentation will focus on the role values play when providing scientific advice to policy-makers. While scientific advice is supposed to be objective, unbiased and independent, in reality values influence not only policy but also science, particularly regarding assessments of evidential sufficiency, and especially in hotly debated areas such as environmental risks. Science advice thus cannot be value-free, but still must have integrity with respect to evidence. Keeping values to the proper roles is crucial for this.