Science Policy

Schottky mechanism Schott nomenclature Schradan [152-16-9] Schreibersite [12424-46-3] Schugi mixer Schulze-Hardy rule Schwann cells Schwarzembergite Schwenzfeier process Science policy... 

Science Policy. Technology leaders must work to ensure both a long-term national commitment at the federal level to support such basic research (41), and national poHcies that enable the partnering needed to take advantage of it. 

Ronald E. Hester is Professor of Chemistry in the University of York. He was for short periods a research fellow in Cambridge and an assistant professor at Cornell before being appointed to a lectureship in chemistry in York in 1965. He has been a full professor in York since 1983. His more than 300 publications are mainly in the area of vibrational spectroscopy, latterly focusing on time-resolved studies of photoreaction intermediates and on biomolecular systems in solution. He is active in environmental chemistry and is a founder member and former chairman of the Environment Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry and editor of Industry and the Environment in Perspective (RSC, 1983) and Understanding Our Environment (RSC, 1986). As a member of the Council of the UK Science and Engineering Research Council and several of its sub-committees, panels and boards, he has been heavily involved in national science policy and administration. He was, from 1991-93, a member of the UK Department of the Environment Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances and is currently a member of the Publications and Information Board of the Royal Society of Chemistry. 

The factors that favour successful industrial innovation have been memorably analysed by a team at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University, in England (Rothwell et al. 1974). In this project (named SAPPHO) 43 pairs of attempted similar innovations one successful in each pair, one a commercial failure - were critically compared, in order to derive valid generalisations. One conclusion was The responsible individuals (i.e., technical innovator, business innovator, chief executive, and - especially - product champion) in the successful attempts are usually more senior and have greater authority than their counterparts who fail . 

Mar, B.W., "Technology and the Environment, Workshop on Science Policy for Developing Countries", Cocoyoc, Mexico 1991. 

Acknowledges the financial support from the CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientiTico e Tecnologico - Brazil) and the Federal Science Policy Office of Belgium (IPA Program). 

Seuntjens P, Steurbaut W, Vangronsveld J (2006) Chain model for the impact analysis of contaminants in primary food products. Study report of the Belgian Science Policy... 

Henderson, R.F. 1992. Short-term exposure guidelines for emergency response The approach of the Committee on Toxicology. Pp. 89—92 in Conference on Chemical Risk Assessment in the Department of Defense (DoD) Science, Policy, and Practice, H.J.Clewell, III, ed. American Conference of Governmental Hygienists, Cincinnati, OH. 

Katharine, J., 2002. Connecting science, policy, and decision making a handbook for researchers and science agencies. NOAA Office of Global Programs.USA. 

U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Policy and Global Affairs Division... 

Perhaps the most important contribution of the Academy committee came in the area of what its report called science policy. The term was not used, as it is typically, to describe issues of, for example, the public funding of scientific research, or the priorities given to various research endeavors. In the context of the committee s report, the phrase was used to describe the considerations to be given to the choice of scientific assumptions that are necessary to complete a risk... 

The science policy components of risk assessment have led to what have come to be called default assumptions. A default is a specific, automatically applied choice, from among several that are available (in this case it might be, for example, a model for extrapolating animal dose-response data to humans), when such a choice is needed to complete some undertaking (e.g., a risk assessment). We turn in the next chapter to the conduct of risk assessment and the ways in which default assumptions are used under current regulatory guidelines. We might say we have arrived at the central subject of this book. 

Research might be able to answer questions about the forms of extrapolation having scientific support in the case of specific chemicals, but the development of science-based forms of extrapolation that can be applied generally is not yet possible - hence the continued need for science policy choices. 

This use of animal evidence is based, in part, upon its scientific standing, but it is also based upon a science policy decision - it is one of the defaults present in the risk assessment process. Even in the absence of specific knowledge that the response detected in a toxicology study is relevant to humans, it will be assumed to be so -unless other data arrive to demonstrate that it is not relevant to humans (see below what is meant by other data ). Regulators and public health policies generally call for action even when the evidence regarding adverse health effects does not rise to the level necessary to establish causation in humans. 

These are the most important types of problem that arise which must be dealt with if risk assessments are to be completed. Again, there may be data available for some chemicals that allow reasonably accurate scientific answers for some of these questions, but as we emphasized in Chapter 7, scientific answers will generally be found wanting. Hence invocation of science policies - defaults. In Table 8.2, we find the most important regulatory defaults for risk assessment. 

Each of the choices we have described involves a combination of scientific data, science policy assumptions ( defaults ) and some additional judgments (e.g., about the importance of various data base deficiencies). With the background just presented you should be able to understand any such derivation offered by the EPA or other regulatory agencies, with two exceptions. 

The Handbook emphasized that other aspects than science influence risk characterization, and that science policy choices must be made to deal with uncertainties. Many choices are usually made during the course of the risk assessment process, resulting in a particular outcome. Therefore, it is possible to perform parallel risk assessments of the same data, but reach different results. 

US-EPA. 2000. Science Policy Council Handbook Risk Characterization Handbook. EPA lOO-BOO-002. Washington, DC Science Policy Council. December, http //www.epa.gov/osp/spc/rchandbk.pdf... 

Acknowledgements CERM is indebted to the Belgian Science Policy for general support in the frame of the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme (lAP 6/27) - Functional Supramo-lecular Systems. P.L. is Research Associate funded by the Fonds National pour la Recherche Scientifique (FRS-FNRS). 

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