Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2012;7(3):e31824. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031824. Epub 2012 Mar 9.
The need for policy makers to understand science and for scientists to understand policy processes is widely recognised. However, the science-policy relationship is sometimes difficult and occasionally dysfunctional; it is also increasingly visible, because it must deal with contentious issues, or itself becomes a matter of public controversy, or both. We suggest that identifying key unanswered questions on the relationship between science and policy will catalyse and focus research in this field. To identify these questions, a collaborative procedure was employed with 52 participants selected to cover a wide range of experience in both science and policy, including people from government, non-governmental organisations, academia and industry. These participants consulted with colleagues and submitted 239 questions. An initial round of voting was followed by a workshop in which 40 of the most important questions were identified by further discussion and voting. The resulting list includes questions about the effectiveness of science-based decision-making structures; the nature and legitimacy of expertise; the consequences of changes such as increasing transparency; choices among different sources of evidence; the implications of new means of characterising and representing uncertainties; and ways in which policy and political processes affect what counts as authoritative evidence. We expect this exercise to identify important theoretical questions and to help improve the mutual understanding and effectiveness of those working at the interface of science and policy.
政策制定者需要了解科学，科学家也需要了解政策过程，这一点已得到广泛认可。然而，科学与政策之间的关系有时很复杂，有时甚至运转不良；而且这种关系也越来越引人关注，因为它必须处理有争议的问题，或者本身成为公众争论的焦点，或者兼而有之。我们认为，确定科学与政策之间关系上未得到解答的关键问题，将能够促进并聚焦该领域的研究。为了确定这些问题，我们采用了一种协作程序，从科学和政策领域具有广泛经验的 52 名参与者中进行选择，其中包括来自政府、非政府组织、学术界和工业界的人员。这些参与者与同事进行了磋商，并提交了 239 个问题。在第一轮投票之后，我们举行了一次研讨会，通过进一步讨论和投票确定了 40 个最重要的问题。由此产生的清单包括关于基于科学的决策结构的有效性、专业知识的性质和合法性、透明度提高等变化的后果、不同证据来源的选择、描述和表示不确定性的新方法的含义、以及政策和政治进程如何影响权威性证据的问题。我们希望这项工作能够确定重要的理论问题，并有助于增进科学界和政策界之间互动的相互理解和有效性。
