Conference Recap: Science Policy Sessions at AAAS 2024 Annual Meeting

By Sheeva Azma

As a grad student living in DC in the late 2000s and early 2010s, I spent a lot of time at the American Association for the Advancement of Science or AAAS. It was a refreshing change of pace from grappling with tough questions in neuroscience as a PhD student. At AAAS, I’d get to hear about ideas I’d never heard of before, in bioethics, science policy, and more, and it was exciting to learn about all the different ways science plays a role in the real world, outside of the laboratory. (The free food helped, too.)

That’s why, when I realized I could attend the AAAS 2024 Annual Meeting for free as a journalist thanks to my affiliation with the National Association of Science Writers, I immediately signed up. Attending the Denver, Colorado conference virtually, I scoured the program for every science policy session I could find…and sought to cover as many of those as possible. I recapped 13 sessions and 12+ hours of AAAS conference goodness, which was still just a small subset of the 36-hour tour de force that was the 2024 AAAS Annual Meeting.

The 2024 AAAS Annual Meeting science policy sessions were full of actionable takeaways for scientists

The best part about it all was that these science policy sessions were packed full of practical information. I feel transformed by the knowledge I gained recapping these sessions this summer, and I hope that readers feel the same way, too. By the way, these blogs are not an exhaustive recap of every single science policy session that happened at the AAAS conference, but it is a recap of sessions I found interesting and useful as a scientist with policy experience.

Establishing a community of practice for scientists in science policy

In one session, panelist Kaye Husbands Fealing noted that there is no “community of practice” for a field called “science of science” that introspects on the social and behavioral aspects of science. I was shocked to learn this because understanding the larger context and culture of science is crucial for many reasons, including to drive smart policy. Another reason I was shocked to learn of the lack of a community of practice for science of science as a field, which includes sociology of science, is because we have blogged about sociology of science a lot here at Fancy Comma. Science of science definitely a field that attracts scientists’ interest, but as a field of study, it is quite fragmented.

I would say that the same holds true for science policy as a whole. It’s tough to find science policy information as an outsider unless you know where to look, and I’ve never heard of a science policy conference for scientists (if there is one, please, fill me in). Therefore, by providing key takeaways from these sessions here, I hope to contribute to the establishment of a community of practice for scientists involved in science policy (which we’ve also blogged about a lot!), and I hope that this coverage also helps make the case for policy-savvy scientific training. After all, here in the US, the government is the main source for science funding. Therefore, you could say that, in a way, without scientists’ political engagement, there is no science.

With all of that said, check out all of my AAAS 2024 Annual Meeting science policy recap blogs below.

A full list of the 13+ hours of science policy sessions I covered at the 2024 AAAS Annual Meeting

• How to Get into Science Policy as a Scientist: The “Engaging Scientists and Engineers in Policy (ESEP) Town Hall” provided no shortage of ideas for scientists seeking to participate in science policy. My article topped out at 21 ways to get into science policy as a scientist.

• The US Executive Branch – Where US Science Policy Comes Alive!: The “Mini-Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering (CASE) Workshop” overviewed the ways the US federal executive branch works with Congress to implement laws.

• Science-Informed Policymaking for State Governments: A session called “For Science Policy, States Are Where the Action Is” provided case studies on ways that California, Connecticut, and Washington state are using science to inform policymaking in state legislatures as well as promoting civic science engagement on the state and local levels.

• Engaging in State and Local Policymaking as Scientist: The “Become an Advocate for Science Policy in Your Local Community” session was organized by Engineers and Scientists Acting Locally. The panelists talked about ways scientists can contribute to policymaking, discussed why scientist involvement improves policymaking, and shared their best tips for community engagement as a scientist.

• Working with Policymakers across Divides: “Engaging Policymakers Across Political Difference” was a fast-paced session with tons of great information about finding common ground in policymaking.

• Best Practices for Taking Science to Congress: A session called ““Lifting the Veil on Congressional Science Policy” is the primer to participating in Congress as a scientist that we all didn’t know we needed. The panelists talked about the pragmatic aspects of how Congress works and the ways science is used in Congress. They also gave actionable tips for scientists talking to Congress. (For more on engaging with Congress as a scientist, check out our article on the subject.)

• Comparing Scientists’ and Non-scientists’ Use of Science in Congress: This blog reflects on a seminar organized to talk about the goal of making science useful to policymakers called “Increasing the Use of Scientific Evidence in a Complex World.” My recap focuses primarily on one part of the seminar: a talk by presenter K.L. Akerlof called “Making Science Useable Across Divides” which reflected on ways scientists and non-scientists use science in Congress. It was fascinating!

• The Role of Secrecy in US Semiconductor Policy: Given Fancy Comma, LLC’s involvement in communicating science to help policymakers understand the CHIPS and Science Act, this was an interesting session at the intersection of technology, policy, and law. Despite my lack of a legal background, I managed to write about the whole session, which was called “When Semiconductor Walls Come Down: Managing IP and Security Globally.” If you like this recap, you may also like my recap of the “Scientific Evidence and the Courts” event that happened September 21-22, 2023 at AAAS.

• Improving Open Science: Open science shares scientific research and even data publicly to help make it more rigorous and thereby accelerate science. In this session and afterwards, I learned that federal science funding agencies such as NASA (as I write in this blog) as well as NIH (which I learned about after writing this blog) are now required to make taxpayer-funded research papers publicly available. After attending this session, called “Open Science: From Policy to Practice,” I became a believer in open science, despite the many challenges ahead for its full and most efficacious adoption.

• Engaging with the Local Community as a Scientist: In a session called “Local Science Engagement: Building Community Engagement Skills,” I learned about the AAAS Local Science Engagement Network (LSEN), which unites scientists and their local communities.

• Non-Partisan Science Communication on Capitol Hill: The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan Congressional overseer of federal agencies and programs, was kind enough to present about “Nonpartisan Science Communication in a Polarized World” to help scientists become nonpartisan communications experts when talking to Congress.

• Understanding the “Science of Science”: I loved the session called “Assessing the Science of Science Policy After Two Decades,” which gave a name to the aspects of science culture I’ve been grappling with in my discussions on the Fancy Comma YouTube and here on the blog. I was sad to learn that there is no established community of practice for “science of science,” but excited that I’ve been working in this field without realizing it!

• Capacity-Building for Public Engagement and Outreach in Science: The session called “Incentivizing and Recognizing Public Engagement and Outreach” talked about ways to center community to co-create scientific research with local communities. I learned that this can include listing community members as co-Principal Investigators, which makes so much sense to me!

Whew! That’s a LOT of science policy! [Cue celebration – I LOVE SCIENCE POLICY!]

I hope that you take some time to skim these blogs. If, like me, you’re pressed for time among all the competing priorities of your day but wish to upskill in science policy, consider having your web browser or smartphone read the articles aloud to you while you do other things. While these sessions were “heavy listening,” so to speak, I wrote the blogs with the goal that they would be relatively light reading.

We talk a lot about science policy on the Fancy Comma, LLC blog, and endeavor to be a hub for scientists seeking entry into science policy. Subscribe to the blog and check out all of our science policy blogs, if you are so inclined.

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