Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate (SPARC)

Each day, in the face of deep uncertainty, millions of decisions are made that respond to and influence the behavior of climate. How does the nation’s multi-billion dollar investment in climate research affect those decisions? How can the societal value of this scientific investment be enhanced? These are the core organizing questions for Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate (SPARC) which conducts research and assessments, outreach, and education aimed at helping climate science policies better support climate-related decision making in the face of fundamental and often irreducible uncertainties.

Read more about the project here.

User Engagement and Scientific Research

While the concept of user-inspired research—characterized by engagement between the producers and users of scientific information—is increasingly discussed by academics and science managers, it remains largely absent from science policy decision-making processes. One reason for this appears to be the lack of a formal definition for user-inspired research, description of best practices, and set of assessment criteria that allows for a more formal institutional commitment to this kind of research. CSPO’s new Typology for Assessing the Role of Users in Scientific Research answers this need.

Read more about the typology here.