Workshop: Enhancing Scientists' Capacities for Catalyzing Policy Innovation

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The social and behavioral sciences create knowledge that has significant potential for producing societal benefit. Scientific understanding of people's behavior during hurricanes, floods, and other natural disaster has, for example, led to the development of safer evacuation procedures, while studies of how children learn have helped improve education policy. However, the mechanisms by which such knowledge makes its way into public policy contexts are not fully understood. In an era of increasingly complex policy challenges, defined and acted upon by a diverse and wide-ranging set of stakeholders (e.g. legislators, public administrators, and community leaders), the successful transfer of scientific knowledge requires an in-depth understanding of policy development and implementation. Understanding the interactions between science and policy will help governments and communities better leverage scientific discoveries into beneficial policy innovations. Building on the findings from a previous workshop titled "Catalyzing Discovery for Social Impact: Exploring the Power of the Research-Academic-Policy Nexus to Stimulate Policy Innovation," this workshop will explore, in particular, the role of entrepreneurial scientists in facilitating the exchange of knowledge between science and policy. Social and behavioral scientists are often not trained in how to transfer their knowledge into the public sector. Therefore, a major element of this challenge is identifying and developing the necessary skill sets social scientists need to help catalyze the transformation of their research into practical application. This workshop will convene a dynamic group of the nation's top researchers, thought leaders, and curriculum developers who are actively studying or writing about the challenges posed by the creation and sustainability of strong academic-research-policy relationships. Utilizing participatory action methods and drawing on participants' expertise and experience, this workshop will collaboratively build a skills inventory and a curriculum to build such skills.