The ISSP was honoured to partner with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre to host the Scientists as conveners and ambassadors for facts? Evidence co-creation for a hyper-complex post-fact politics panel at the Canadian Science Policy Conference 2017. The discussion was focused on evidence-informed decision-making in a complex, post-truth world. The panel explored contemporary policy and political decision-making, the role of scientists in evidence-informed decision-making and the challenges and opportunities of measuring the impact of evidence in decisions.
The ISSP was pleased to partner with the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada to organize a panel on science communication, regulation and trust at the SWCC’s annual conference in Ottawa. The panel explored the challenges science communicators face in overcoming low levels of public trust in government, expertise and industry by drawing on panellists’ experiences in diverse sectors and communications methods. Moderated by ISSP Director Monica Gattinger, the event featured panellists Jacob Berkowitz, Science Writer and ISSP Writer-in-Residence; Jason Cameron, Vice-President and Chief Communications Officer, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and Vanessa Nelson, Vice-President, External Relations, Let’s Talk Science.
The @Risk Research Team met in Ottawa to launch the Partnership Development Grant. A public lecture kicked off the session, entitled “Managing risk in a post-trust era”. Speakers included team members Rukhsana Ahmed, Erick Lachapelle, Kieran O’Doherty, and Gregor Wolbring. The Team then discussed case study dimensions, a draft analytical framework, the preliminary workplan and early design considerations for the survey component planned for Year 2.
The Institute for Science, Society and Policy hosted a special presentation by ISSP Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Science and Society 2016-2017, Dr. Dee Williams, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, where he currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Alaska Regional Office of the US Geological Survey-the science agency of the US Department of the Interior.
The ISSP was delighted to host Kei Koizumi, Visiting Scholar in Science Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the students from George Washington University.
The Institute for Science, Society and Policy hosted a special presentation by Allan Fogwill, President and CEO of the Canadian Energy Research Institute, on "Electrification: From the What to the How." Mr. Fogwill discussed a newly released report called "Greenhouse Gas Emissions reductions in Canada through Electrification of Energy Services."
The Institute for Science, Society and Policy hosted a special presentation by Sir Peter Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand and Chair of the International Network of Government Science Advice. The title of Sir Peter's presentation was "Science Advice in a Troubled World." This event was co-hosted with the Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC), and was the inaugural session of the CSPC's Canadian Science Policy Lecture Series.
The Institute for Science, Society and Policy hosted an expert panel discussion about the promises and pitfalls of open data policy: “What are we to make of open data policies?” ISSP core member and Professor Daniel J. Paré, president of the Canadian Communication Association, chaired the event, which was the second of the ISSP's panel series for the 2016-2017 academic year.
The Institute for Science, Society and Policy together with Genome Canada, sponsored an expert panel discussion of how to approach the societal opportunities and challenges posed by new gene editing techniques such as CRISPR. ISSP Director, Professor Monica Gattinger, chaired the event, which was the first of the ISSP's panel series for the 2016-2017 academic year.
Workshop and reception to mobilize existing knowledge, foster relationships and elucidate promising areas of shared interest. Participants included senior practitioners from the energy, genomics and public health sectors and faculty and students from seven universities and multiple disciplines including political science, engineering, communications, psychology, geography, law and philosophy.
