User:MichChemGSI/Science Policy

Science policy deals with the issues where science, government and society intersect.

Science policy is an area of public policy usually concerned with the funding of science and with the regulation of technology produced by scientific research. Science policy is the intersection between scientific research and public policy, dealing with the issues where science, government and society intersect.

Scientists should be involved in policy because they eventually effect the research that is funded.

History
The first President's Science and Technology Advisor was James R. Killian, appointed in 1958 by President Eisenhower after Sputnik created the urgency for the government to support science and education. We realized then that Americans were going to continue to be the world leader in scientific, technological and military advances, the government would need to support them. After World War II, the US government began to formally provide support for scientific research and to establish the general structure by which science is conducted in the US. The foundation for modern American science policy was laid way out in Vannevar Bush's Science - the Endless Frontier, submitted to President Truman in 1945.

Creation of the NSF
The creation of the National Science Foundation (NSF), although in 1950, was a controversial issue that started as early as 1942, between engineer and science administrator Vannevar Bush and Senator Harley M. Kilgore (D-WV), who was interested in the organization of military research. Senator Kilgore presented a series of bills between 1942-1945 to Congress, the one that most resembles the establishment of the NSF, by name, was in 1944, outlining an independent agency whose main focus was to promote peacetime basic and applied research as well as scientific training and education. The director would be appointed and the board would be composed of scientists, technical experts and members of the public. The government would take ownership of intellectual property developed with federal funding and funding would be distributed based on geographical location, not merit. Although, both Bush and Kilgore were in favor of government support of science, they disagreed philosophically on the details of how that support would be carried out. In particular, Bush sided with the board being composed of just scientists with no public insight. When Congress signed the legislation that created the NSF, many of Bush's ideals were removed. It illustrates that these questions about patent rights, social science expectations, the distribution of federal funding (geographical or merit), and who (scientists or policymakers) get to be the administrators are interesting questions that are grappled with in science policy.

System
The success of the US in scientific excellence can be attributed to the distinguishing characteristics of the US Science Policy system from other systems around the world. The following characteristics distinguish the US from other counties:


 * 1) The funding system is decentralized in that support comes from within each of the individual agencies.
 * 2) Support is based on the project's merit in a competitive marketplace.
 * 3) When federal funding goes to the university system, it funds both research and the education of future researchers and scientists.
 * 4) The government is involved in both the direct and indirect costs of research. From funding salaries and supplies (direct) to facilities and administrative costs (indirect).