Scientific Advice Mechanisms for Policy

In an ever more complex and globalized political context, scientific advice to policymakers plays an increasingly important role, in particular for addressing the grand challenges ahead such as scarcity of natural resources, food safety, the cost of energy, the impacts of climate change, and aging of the population. Establishing dialogue between science, policy, and society may contribute toward rebuilding citizen confidence in government and strengthening the legitimacy of democracies. The European Commission recently created the Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM), aimed at supporting the Commission with high quality, timely, and independent scientific advice. In parallel, SAM has a structured relationship with scientific advisory bodies and science academies in the European Union member states. This model provides an innovative way to connect the demand and supply of scientific advice. Using a similar rationale, this session promotes an open discussion on how best to deliver science advice institutionally, comparing the new European approach to other science advisory structures worldwide. A particular emphasis is on how to harness the expertise of science academies and learned societies while improving the process through which scientific evidence is delivered to policymakers.