New Fellows Program Aims to Bridge Policy, Science Divide

The Ohio State Battelle Center for Science, Engineering and Public Policy has partnered with Cleveland State University and Case Western University to prepare students to integrate scientific and technical insight with policy making.

The Ohio Public Interest Fellows program will place five graduate students, drawn from scientific-technical academic backgrounds, in state government so they can gain firsthand experience in the ways science can be used to inform policy and how policy can fund and support the sciences. The Fellows will learn to become advocates of clear communication between these two disciplines.

The Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) Challenge selected the Fellows program as one of 31 grantees to receive a total of $3.61 million to fund and support critical research, field building and the development of a career pipeline for public interest technologists.

The differences in culture, process and outcomes between science and policy have created a long-standing divide between the two. These two enterprises can benefit from better connectivity, including people who have a deeper understanding of both the processes and requirements of policy and the types of data and stories that science can elaborate.

The Ohio Public Interest Fellows program continues Ohio State Battelle Center’s mission to connect policy makers with scientists and engineers to create productive dialogues that allow our decision makers to understand highly technical information, anticipate challenges and innovate in the public interest.