April 2023 - ALLEA

Citizens and Experts Join Forces to Tackle Climate Change

25. April 2023/in ALLEA News /by Joséphine Dusol

Inside PERITIA’s Citizen Fora Series

This past winter, PERITIA offered a space for individuals from different backgrounds to exchange ideas and deliberate on policy issues related to climate change. Organised by Sense About Science and the Policy Institute, the series provided unique opportunities for citizen and experts to meet, deliberate and exchange on some of the most pressing and controversial topics confronting society today.

These workshops are designed to be “deliberative mini publics” that give participants with the opportunity to learn, discuss and make policy recommendations. These citizen fora help to ensure that public opinions are heard and taken into consideration when making policy decisions. The workshops focussed on the mitigation of the climate crisis through policies linked to local urban transport. The sessions were held in five capital cities: London, Berlin, Dublin, Warsaw, and Yerevan.

Participants from all walks of life attended the day-long workshops, where they listened to experts and discussed their own ideas before making policy recommendations. The workshops concluded with a policy vote, through which participants could collectively express their views on the policy issues discussed. Further, the impact of these encounters between laypeople and experts are now being analysed by researchers, with the hope of gaining insight into how to improve the conditions of trust in the policy-making process.

“We start with where the public is at in a discussion, and figure out how expertise can contribute to their thinking and deliberations.”

– Tracey Brown OBE, director of Sense About Science, one of the partners who designed and led on the series.

Overall, PERITIA’s citizen fora are a promising approach to the promotion of public participation in policy-making, providing a platform for citizens to engage in public reflection and deliberation on some of the most pressing issues confronting society today. Through these workshops, researchers expect to learn how to cultivate trust in experts and policymakers, ultimately leading to better policy decisions in the future.

How Do We Decide Which Experts to Trust?

24. April 2023/in ALLEA News, Digital Salon, Unpublished /by maria ronald

Prof T.Y. Branch, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Cologne

In this ALLEA Digital Salon exclusive, Prof T.Y. Branch, Postdoctoral Fellow at the the Cologne Center for Contemporary Epistemology and the Kantian Tradition (CONCEPT) and member of PERITIA’s research team on the “Social Indicators of Trust”, discusses how publics use both epistemic and non-epistemic values in their decisions to trust or distrust experts and expertise.

Prof Branch shared her insights into this complex and integrated decision-making process, which often involves reading social and cultural cues, described why scientists and science communicators should pay close attention to these social indicators of trust to be more effective, and the utility of acknowledging and being transparent about the role of non-epistemic values in science.

“We know it is no longer enough to just convey the facts of science or the empirical data. You can throw as much empirical data at people as you want, but it is not going to provoke a change in them.”

We invite you to watch the interview , which is part of the ALLEA Digital Salon Women in Science Series. You can also read more about Prof Branch’s work here.

If you are interested in learning more about this important relationship between public trust and experts/expertise, you could check out PERITIA’s final conference on 4-5 May 2023.

Registration for the Symposium ‘Crises and the Importance of Research’ Is Now Open

11. April 2023/in ALLEA News /by Joséphine Dusol

ALLEA is pleased to announce that the registration for the scientific symposium ‘Crises and the Importance of Research: How Prepared Can We Be?’ is now open. The event will take place in London from 22–23 June 2023 and will bring together international experts to explore the contribution of research to various aspects of crises. The symposium is part of the ALLEA General Assembly and hosted by ALLEA’s Member Academies, the British Academy, the Learned Society of Wales, the Royal Society, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Scientists, policymakers, and professionals from across Europe will discuss how public services aid in disaster response; the role of actors across different levels of governance, geographical areas, and economic sectors in preparing for future pandemics; the crucial importance of data in emergencies answers; and, lastly, the role of the European research community in supporting researchers at risk. This symposium delves into critical issues from the spheres of science, society, and policy, and serves as a platform for international, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral exchange. Participation is open to all and is free of charge.

About the ALLEA General Assembly

The General Assembly annually convenes academies of sciences and humanities from 40 countries across the Council of Europe region. General Assemblies are hosted by ALLEA Member Academies and the programme typically consists of the internal business meeting of academy delegates, and a scientific symposium open to the public.

The symposium (22 June 2023) explores pressing topics from the fields of science, society, and policy, and provides a platform for international, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral debate.

The business meeting (23 June 2023) addresses governance, strategy, and policy matters and is restricted to Member Academies’ delegates.