Jeremy Pesner: How to Make Science Research More Socially Impactful

This is a video abstract from Jeremy Pesner who authored a policy position paper (Third Place Winner) titled “Ensuring Social Impact at Every Stage of Technology Research & Development” in the Journal of Science Policy and Governance. Volume 18, Issue 03 | August 30, 2021

Read the paper here: https://doi.org/10.38126/JSPG180305

Jeremy Pesner can be contacted here: jp659@georgetown.edu

Paper Abstract
“Although the United States national innovation system has produced many technologies, their benefits are not evenly distributed across the country’s population. This stands in direct contrast to the aims of government, which frequently funds science research for the purpose of social benefit. This paper first undertakes a deep reconsideration of the US national innovation system, and then reframes it as a collective impact initiative in order to coordinate every one of its contributors around this goal. It begins by tracing the origins of the longstanding tensions between science undertaken for the sakes of science inquiry versus societal benefit. It then discusses the inadequacies of practices meant to bridge science outcomes and societal needs like the broader impacts and technology transfer. It concludes by proposing a significant expansion of the stakeholders that evaluate the proposals and outcomes of federally funded research. This integrates diverse public participation into the proposal selection process, research discussions, and technology transfer to ensure that universal social impact is routinely considered.”

Additional Readings
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/saving-science
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/toward-an-ecological-model-of-research-and-development/275187
https://www.techradar.com/news/what-is-responsible-innovation-and-why-should-tech-giants-take-it-seriously
https://theconversation.com/academics-can-change-the-world-if-they-stop-talking-only-to-their-peers-55713

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The CivicSciTV Journal is a program on the CivicSciTV Network that features video abstracts directly from scholars about their latest research in various civic science areas (e.g., public engagement, community science, science policy, science communication, science journalism etc) that is published in the last 2-3 years. The analogy is that the CivicSciTV Journal is the Jove but for civic science. The main goal is to make civic science scholarship more accessible and actionable for diverse stakeholders. 

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