Demos Project : Science, Technology and Civil Society (STACS)

WANTED! - Citizen Scientists

jack.stilgoe@demos.co.uk ( Jack Stilgoe ) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:41:11 -0100

Way, way up in northern Norway, reminiscent of a scene from His Dark Materials, scientists are currently busy hiding seeds in a giant underground fridge. In the much warmer fields of Southern France, they have a more vibrant approach to biodiversity. Here, farmers are breeding and growing wheat. Their new varieties of wheat are in fact very old indeed. They hark back to a time when farmers wanted bread that was good to eat rather than easy to make on an industrial scale. The farmers here argue that their new/old wheat is tastier and less likely to lead to gluten intolerance. Thanks to an organisation called Reseau Semences Paysanne, a small group of scientists have been attracted from Paris to take a look at these multicultural fields. Veronique Chable and Isabelle Goldringer from INRA are now working with the farmers to share and advance their collective knowledge about biodiversity, the genetics of seeds, and the future of farming. The INRA researchers and their farmer colleagues have become what we call "Citizen Scientists."

As part of our project on Science, Technology and Civil Society (STACS), we want to contact and profile a number of these citizen scientists. As we described in The Public Value of Science, these are scientists who are engaged in activities that in some way address issues of social or environmental concern. While this might describe much scientific research in the long run, we're looking for the people who are innovating, doing things in new ways, hooking up with green NGOs or patient groups, getting funding from unusual places, that sort of thing. They may be collaborating with scientists in sub-Saharan Africa or sociologists in Salzburg, they may be working with patients to target rare genetic disorders or exploring the ethics of their own research on stem cells, or they may even be whistleblowers, unhappy with their company's R & D decisions.

So, if you know one or if you are one, please send me your nominations for citizen scientists, by email or blog comment. Our report will be out towards the end of the year and our hope is that we can teach European science some lessons and make it easier for other scientists to break moulds.

Innovation for development

jack.stilgoe@demos.co.uk ( Jack Stilgoe ) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:31:45 -0100

The Council for Science Editors, who are behind the most important scientific journals, are publishing a bunch of special issues, editorials and research reports related to global poverty and development challenges.

Next week, we will be holding a workshop aiming to make a small contribution to a small area of science, bringing together those interested in developing world issues with those interested in nanotechnology. One of the speakers will be Richard Jones, whose excellent blog discusses the journals' efforts.

There are all sorts of interesting articles, including one by Thembela Hillie, a South African nanoscientist I met last year in Pretoria. But it is also interesting that the journals have chosen not to hide these papers. They are all deemed sufficiently publicly interesting to be made open access. For the world's most powerful science publishers, this is no small gesture. See here for a previous rant about open access.

This comes at the same time as an interesting survey, brought my way by the ever-excellent Will Davies, showing that France lead the way in pointing their innovation policies towards developing world needs. Will makes the point that this undermines the lazy assumption that policy for innovation should just be about making it happen. When we look at the direction of innovation, on this scorecard, the UK looks pretty ropey.

All of this is a nice reminder that the status quo in scientific practice and communication is in no sense inevitable. There is real room to ask new questions of science, to bring in new values and unearth new value. One of the tasks of the next phase of our Atlas of Ideas project is to test this idea with some new national innovation systems.

People Power?

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:47:18 -0100

Demos and Greenpeace would like to invite you to take part in a workshop for European NGOs and others to share and learn from experiences of public participation in issues involving science.

We have seen recently a new enthusiasm across the EU for public participation. In the UK, Citizens’ Juries are being held up as a source of new political legitimacy, and recent policies on GM crops, hybrid embryos and nanotechnologies have all claimed to have involved some element of public dialogue.

But we are also seeing a credibility gap emerging. The UK’s recent energy review became the subject of a judicial review when Greenpeace called the attempt at public consultation a ‘sham.’ It seems that participation is being used to close down debate as much as to open it up.

Where does this all leave science, democracy and civil society? Does public participation undermine NGOs and scientists? Or does it empower them? How should NGOs deal with future issues, whether micro-generation, open source software, the ethics of stem cell research, clinical trials for drugs or synthetic biology, in a more democratic way?

The workshop will bring together participation experts, scientists and NGOs. Attendees at this workshop will all participate. But the conversation will be prompted by speakers including the following:

Doug Parr, Chief Scientist, Greenpeace UK
Robin Grove-White, Emeritus Professor, University of Lancaster
Richard Wilson, Director, Involve
Norbert Steinhaus, International Science Shop Network and the Citizen Participation in Science and Technology project
Jack Stilgoe, Senior Researcher, Demos

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to jack.stilgoe@demos.co.uk.

Grants are available for NGOs from the European Union to travel to the workshop. Please contact Jack to find out more.

This workshop is supported by the European Commission’s Science, Technology and Civil Society project, which looks for new research from dialogue between scientists and NGOs.

A workshop on Free and Open Source Software

jack.stilgoe@demos.co.uk ( Jack Stilgoe ) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:51:12 -0100

The free and open source software debate has for the last decade or so seen a fascinating place to observe the politics of technology. It has been a forum for experimentation and empowerment, and has opened up some long held assumptions about ownership, research and the role of users.

We're just begun a project on science and civil society, in partnership with a number of organisations across Europe. One of them is the Free Software Foundation Europe. Next month, they're coming over to London to run a training workshop for organisations who may be interested. Should be a really interesting day. Tell them you want to come and head over to The Hub on Nov 2nd.

Nano and development workshop

jack.stilgoe@demos.co.uk ( Jack Stilgoe ) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:46:35 -0100

Demos and Practical Action are holding a workshop for NGOs and scientists, designed to build a new research agenda for nanotechnology and development.

Wednesday 7^th November 2007, 10:30am-4pm
Demos, 3rd Floor, Magdalen House, 136 Tooley Street, London, SE1 2TU

We are delighted to have the following speakers helping us prompt the conversation

Mark Welland, Professor of Nanotechnology and Director of the IRC in Nanotechnology at Cambridge University
Richard Jones, Professor of Physics at the University of Sheffield and Senior Strategic Advisor for Nanotechnology at the EPSRC
David Grimshaw, Practical Action
A representative from the UK Department for International Development (tbc)

Governments and companies are all talking about Nanotechnology – the science of the very small – as the next big technological thing. But with the opportunities come concerns for those people who are too often left out of conversations about technology – the poor. Nano-enthusiasts often point to the benefits for developing countries – in water filtration or new solar cells. But we can’t assume that realising this potential is straightforward.

In 2006, Demos and Practical Action ran a ‘Nanodialogues’ workshop in Zimbabwe to find out more about nano for development. We brought together six scientists and six community representatives to identify problems of and solutions for clean water. At that workshop, our Zimbabwean participants recommended that Western scientists get involved in new sorts of research, directed at these clear human needs.

Now, we want to bring together scientists, NGOs and others in the UK, where there is greater potential to fund research looking at development issues. The aim is to come up with a research agenda that blends NGOs’ experiences of development challenges with cutting edge science.

RSVP to jack.stilgoe@demos.co.uk.

We hope to see you there.

Grants are available for NGOs from the European Union to travel to the workshop. Please contact Jack to find out more.
This workshop is supported by the European Commission’s Science, Technology and Civil Society project (www.peopleandscience.org), which aims at new research from dialogue between scientists and NGOs.
For more on the nanodialogues, visit www.demos.co.uk/projects/thenanodialogues