Strategic Action Linking Science and Policy: Multi-Level and Interdisciplinary Solutions for Complex Problems

Abstract

The challenge of meeting human development needs while protecting the earth’s life support systems confronts natural and social scientists, technologists, policy makers, and communities from local to global levels. Many believe that science and technology (S&T) must play a more central role in sustainable development, yet little systematic understanding exists of how to create institutions that effectively harness S&T for sustainability. This presentation will present research and examples in real-world policy/decision making that suggests that efforts to mobilize S&T for sustainability are more likely to be effective when they manage boundaries between knowledge and action in ways that simultaneously enhance the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information they produce.

About the speaker

Dr. David W. Cash is currently a Senior Fellow at Harvard Electricity Policy Group and an affiliate of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. He is the former Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and a Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. Prior to that he was the state’s Assistant Secretary (Assistant Minister) of Energy and Environmental Policy and addressed issues such as climate change, forestry, water policy, waste, air pollution, transportation and fisheries. David earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University with a focus on how scientific and technical knowledge can more effectively inform policy making.