William Gaieck et al. PNAS September 1, 2020 117 (35) 20977-20981

Scientists eager to offer advice to policymakers should consider a few key steps.

Many scientists have become increasingly concerned with the course and status of science-related policies in recent years, and these concerns have only grown in the past months as governments have had to face a global pandemic. As experts in our respective fields, scientists have an obligation and an opportunity to help to inform science policy.

We are a group of early-career scientists, four UC Irvine graduate students and one postdoc, who have seen great value in getting involved with political discourse and science policy. Each of us has been drawn to science policy for different reasons. For some, the decision to get involved has been deeply personal; Evelyn Valdez-Ward, for example, advocates for undocumented and marginalized scientists like herself. Some of us are concerned that, although we are only now beginning our research careers, our research could quite literally disappear with the onset of climate change if political action is not taken. Those of us who work in public health have seen the need to be engaged politically so that we can communicate with our communities, politicians, and funding agencies about how critical research is for our country’s future health and safety.

The current pandemic has likely altered the course of research in this field for many years to come. And it’s still not clear what sort of impacts the pandemic will have on funding across many fields, nor how it might affect how our research is perceived or conducted. We believe that every scientist has an obligation, and a self-interest, to be engaged with science policy and help shape what the future landscape of research looks like. Here we aim to encourage fellow scientists to engage with lawmakers and advocate for evidence-based policy grounded in solid science.