Science & Policy

The Science and Policy group works under the premise that it is possible to use the scientific method to improve the decision-making process. By gathering large amounts of data and using a broad range of approaches, we ask how political decisions can be more informed and how can scientists and the scientific method help in this process. We focus on public policies in Science, Technology, Health and Education and current research includes: using internet search engines and social networks to try identify disease outbreaks and group behaviours, pooling available (but dispersed) information to study public understanding of science and risk communication, generating data (from large scale surveys to text mining techniques) to understand public policies and how to help scientists become effective advisors. Our ultimate goals are to engage scientists and researchers in the policy-making process and to contribute to a more knowledgeable and critical society.