RAPID: Evaluation of Science Advice in a Pandemic Emergency (EScAPE)

科学知识和专门知识在支持有效决策方面日益重要。近几十年来，美国和世界其他国家设计并实施了制度性机制，以更好地获得科学建议。冠状病毒大流行给这些机构带来了考验，为评估它们在全球危机背景下的表现提供了难得的机会。该项目对流行病紧急情况下的科学咨询机制进行了比较性国际评价。随着大流行的持续，这项研究的结果将对正在解决对科学建议的持续需求的机构具有潜在的直接相关性。更广泛地说，这项研究有很大的潜力为科学咨询实践的持续改进做出贡献，这在面对21世纪的挑战时只会变得更加重要。该研究项目对科学咨询在国家大流行应对中的作用进行国际比较分析。该项目与国际政府科学咨询网络（INGSA）合作，该网络的成员包括来自90多个国家的科学咨询学者和从业人员。这项研究的结果具有相当大的智力价值，因为对大流行的不断演变的反应提供了一个真正的“政策实验室”，可以探索和理解向决策者提供科学建议的方式。具体而言，该项目委托开展一系列国家案例研究，研究科学建议在制定应对Covid-19大流行的政策和决策中的各种模式和应用，支持收集科学证据在决策中实时使用（以及不使用、误用）的易腐烂的当代数据，重点关注科学建议的正式机制。我们的评估结果将为世界各地的科学咨询机制提供信息，随着疫情的持续，这些机制面临着紧迫的挑战。这项工作的初步和正在进行的结果将基于INGSA已经建立的网络，立即与国家背景下的相关决策者分享，从而最大限度地发挥从案例研究中吸取的经验教训的潜力，在形成COVID-19流行病的科学咨询过程中发挥积极作用。项目材料也将通过一个易于访问的项目网站更广泛地提供。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Scientific knowledge and expertise are increasingly important in support of effective decision making. In recent decades, the United States and other nations around the world have designed and put into place institutional mechanisms to better secure science advice. The Coronavirus pandemic has put these institutions to the test, offering a rare opportunity to assess their performance in the context of a global crisis. This project performs a comparative, international evaluation of mechanisms of science advice in the pandemic emergency. As the pandemic continues, the results of this research will be of potential immediate relevance to institutions that are addressing the continuing need for science advice. More broadly, this research has great potential to contribute to the continued improvement of scientific advisory practices, which will only become more important in confronting challenges of the 21st century.This research project performs an international comparative analysis of the role(s) of science advice in national pandemic response. The project partners with the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA), which includes in its membership science advice scholars and practitioners from over 90 countries. The results of this research have considerable intellectual merit, as the evolving response to the pandemic offers a true “policy laboratory” to explore and understand the provision of science advice to decisions makers. Specifically, this project commissions a set of national case studies on diverse models and applications of science advice in shaping policies and decision-making in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, supporting the collection of perishable, contemporary data on the real-time uses (along with non-use, misuse) of scientific evidence in decision making, with a focus on formal mechanisms of science advice. The results of our evaluation will inform science advisory mechanisms around the world, which face urgent challenges as the pandemic continues. The initial and ongoing results of this work will be immediately shared with relevant decision makers in national settings, based on the network already in place via INGSA, this maximizing the potential for the lessons learned via the case studies to have a positive role in shaping science advisory processes in the COVID-19 epidemic. Project materials will also be made more generally available via a readily-accessible project website.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.