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The CSPO Team is heading into a dynamic fall season with a range of talks, workshops, and ongoing research projects. We are also gearing up for a special event celebrating CSPO’s 25th anniversary on December 10 in Washington, DC. Be sure to mark your calendar and join us for a celebration of our achievements and thought-provoking discussions on CSPO’s future in science and technology policy.
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Join us for the New Tools for Science Policy seminar on October 3, where experts will present groundbreaking research on carbon removal initiatives. Speakers include Holly Jean Buck (University of Buffalo), Mahmud Farooque and Amanda Borth (ASU-CSPO), and Sara Nawaz (American University), followed by a discussion with Rory Jacobsen (Department of Energy) and Marcela Mulholland (Carbon Removal Alliance). Explore the role of public perception, policy, ethics, and community engagement in ensuring effective and equitable CDR efforts.
Join us for a reception immediately following the panel, where we can continue the conversation over refreshments from 5pm-6pm. We look forward to seeing you there!
In Person Registration
Virtual Registration
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September 28: The Climate Conundrum: A Public Discussion on the Role of Carbon Dioxide Removal, Boston, MA, 9am-4pm
This participatory Technology Assessment (pTA) forum will explore climate mitigation through Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies. As CDR advances, public input is essential to address the social and ethical questions it raises. Co-presented by ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, the University of Calgary, and the Museum of Science, Boston, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
More information: https://www.mos.org/events/climate-conundrum
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October 15: All-ASU S&T Policy Research Lunch and Discussion, ASU, Tempe, AZ, 11:30am-3:00pm
ASU has great strengths in science and technology policy and a wide diversity of research projects underway across its colleges, schools, and centers. To bring the community together, explore collective interests, and plan for the future, CSPO is convening an all-ASU Science and Technology Policy Research lunch. The program will begin with ASU President Michael Crow in dialogue with Issues in S&T editor Lisa Margonelli, followed by an open discussion about S&T policy research community-building initiatives.
More information: ASU S&T Policy Research Lunch
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October 22-24, Fall School on Citizens’ Assemblies, Phoenix, AZ
Interest in Citizens’ Assemblies is rising across North America, with public authorities increasingly commissioning deliberative processes. In response, ASU’s CSPO is partnering with the Federation for Innovation in Democracy (FIDE) to offer a workshop and training program. The Citizens’ Assembly School is designed for civil servants, politicians, civil society members, and private sector representatives looking to understand and implement Citizens’ Assemblies and other deliberative methods.
More information: https://www.fide.eu/north-america/fall-school-2024
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November 12: FAS-CSPO Workshop: Building Public Capacity to Participate in R&D, ASU Washington, DC Center
This workshop, co-organized by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes (CSPO), will bring together federal S&T funding agencies, philanthropies, and think tanks to discuss best practices for funding community-based organizations. Topics include identifying and supporting communities, alternative outcome metrics, and sustainability amid shifting resources. Panels will feature federal agency reps, community members, and case studies of community funding initiatives.
For more information, email Arthur Daemmrich, [email protected].
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December 10: CSPO@25 – S&T Policy Outcomes for the next 25 Years, ASU Washington, DC Center (workshop and dinner at The Square)
CSPO was lauched at Columbia University in 1999 and moved to Arizona State University in 2004. Over the years, it has led efforts to integrate social science with technology development, advocate for use-inspired research, and engage diverse communities through participatory Technology Assessment (pTA). In December 2024, S&T policymakers, academic leaders, and emerging professionals will gather to envision future outcomes and discuss the critical role of S&T policy in addressing today’s challenges. What new approaches are needed? What problems should we focus on, and who should be involved in shaping these solutions?
For more information, email Arthur Daemmrich, [email protected].
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AAAS Training Program
In early September, CSPO team members Arthur Daemmrich and Bhaven Sampat ran a training session as part of the AAAS orientation program for incoming Science and Technology Policy Fellows. Through a hypothetical budget allocation exercise (with some difficult choices) and review of the history of S&T policy since WWII, we explored key shifts in US S&T policy and addressed current challenges, including ways of furthering use-inspired research and better engaging communities in research and technology development.
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Swiss Innovation Clusters
During the second week of September, CSPO director Arthur Daemmrich joined a group of 11 US-based “think tankers” on a study tour of Switzerland’s innovation clusters. The group visited innovation parks in Lausanne, Biel-Bienne, and Aargau, as well as breakthrough science and engineering labs at the University of Bern, ETH Zürich, and the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et Microtechnique, among others. Switzerland is very effective at supporting bottom-up innovation through government coordination while largely avoiding picking national technology champions. Like other smaller countries, it faces some key challenges in coming years, especially if decades of work to advance a rules-based international trading system are further reversed.
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Bhaven Sampat spent much of the summer working on an empirical assessment of the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act, which seeks to balance innovation and affordability for pharmaceuticals in the US. Hatch-Waxman aimed to strike this balance by providing extended patent terms for new medicines (called patent term restoration) to make up for time lost during clinical trials while also establishing a procedure for generic firms to enter the market after patents expire without having to run their own costly clinical trials. At the Act’s 40th anniversary, high drug prices, barriers to generic competition, and effects of patents remain pressing policy issues that attract significant public attention. Bhaven presented his work on “Hatch-Waxman at 40” at a Brookings Institution event celebrating the anniversary (with Henry Waxman and others involved in its passage present), an NYU Law School conference on the Act, at the University of Pennsylvania’s Law and Economics Seminar, and to a seminar for Argentinian judges visiting the U.S. to learn about global pharmaceutical patent policies; the work has been cited in Stat-News and the Tradeoffs podcast.
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Participatory Technology Assessment (pTA) Activities
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Amanda Borth participated in US Department of Energy sponsored Research Experience in CarbonSequestration (RECS) program. Hosted in Colorado and Wyoming between July 21-30, the immersive education and training for early career professionals working in carbon dioxide removal, will bring critical insights, foster valuable relationships, and provide in house expertise for CSPO’s growing portfolio of climate and energy related projects.
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Nicholas Weller led the convening of a 2-day workshop in Flagstaff, AZ on August 14th and 15th. It brought together national and international experts and stakeholders to help design public deliberation forums for consent-based siting of spent nuclear for the CSPO led Consortia for CommunityEngagement Innovation and Learning (CCEIL-AZ) project. External participants included current and former representatives from the Department of Energy,Nuclear Energy Institute, National Academy of Sciences, Nuclear Waste TechnicalReview Board, Energy Community Alliance, Southwest Research and InformationCenter, GDFWatch (UK), Good Energy Collective, Western Interstate Energy Board,Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee, and the Östhammar Municipality in Sweden, which volunteered to host a permanent repository in their community. They were joined by project team members from ASU, Museum ofScience, SciStarter, Arizona Library Association, Arizona Science Center,University of Maryland and Arizona Faith Network.
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Amanda Borth, Nich Weller, Mahmud Farooque, Vishrudh Sriramprasad and Bonnie Ervin descended on Sulphur, LA on August 24th to host the second of three community dialogues for co-developing shared principles for community collaboration for Project Cypress, a department of energy funded demonstration hub for direct air capture of carbon dioxide. The day-long dialogue was held at the SulphurRegional Library with diverse members of the local community, DOE and ProjectCypress representatives. Participants shared their hopes and concerns about the project and discussed how the various partners should engage with the community as it is being developed.
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Mahmud Farooque, Emily Hostetler and Amanda Borth joined 170 delegates from 20 countries in the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Democracy R&D Network, in Vancouver, Canada on September 19 and 20. Mahmud joined Yves Mathieu from Missions Publiques and Giovanni Allegretti from University of Coimbra to co-host a workshop on Integrating multi-species perspectives in democratic deliberations.The workshop explored innovative practices and approaches for expanding democratic participation to include non-human entities, future generations, and the broader living systems. Mahmud shared use of future focused scenarios and sci-fiction narratives in projects involving anticipatory governance of human gene editing and siting of hazardous radioactive waste.
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On September 15th, Mahmud Farooque received an NSF award to convene a workshop series for Building informed and involved communities for responsible marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). It will engage multi-sectoral actors involved in research, testing, development, and deployment of mCDR with community engagement scholars and practitioners in relevant domains to help co-develop a roadmap for building informed and involved communities.
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