European science and public policy

Science and public policy.

Ideology, science, and public policy.

I deologies—strong beliefs based on untestable assumptions—are the antithesis of science. Whether economic (the ‘‘invisible hand of the market’’ will solve social inequities ‘‘in the long run’’), religious (‘‘we’’ hold the sole truth of a divine entity), or political (our way is the best governance for assuring liberty and justice), these kinds of widespread beliefs are acceptable in individual...

Basic science and public policy.

I would like to address my attention to the Cancer Program as seen by the basic science community, not so much in terms of dollars and cents but of the objectives; i.e., where and how the basic sciences should fit and what role they have been asked to play in the Program. I am not going to deal with specifics of appropriation from the NCI budget, nor with the scientific basis of cancer control....

Surprises in European science policy.

I recently participated in a daring experiment—I was a member of the selection committee for the European Commission’s functional genomics projects under the 5th Framework Programme. And my experience of this experiment was quite surprising for two reasons. The first was that the EC has obviously listened to scientists’ opinions and the second was that they have shown the ability to change the ...

Epidemiologic science and public health policy.

Our alleged views on science and policy [l] differ from our actual views [2]. We do not believe that epidemiologists “simply should not be involved in policy making” [ll. To the contrary, we uphold the “rights and responsibilities of scientists to participate, like any concerned citizens, in the politica1 process that determines policy” [2]. The science of epidemiology is firmly ensconsed withi...