‘A Bias Radar for Responsible Policy-making. Foresight-Based Scientific Advice’ is a Palgrave book within the St Antony’s Series, in which Dr Van Woensel addresses policy advice processes for parliaments, with a focus on science and technology related issues. Her tips for preparing trustworthy foresight-based policy advice are applicable to other policy matters.
Policy-makers prepare society for the future. Policy advisers can give substantial support to parliaments and politicians by preparing them pro-active, future-proof policy advice.
Lieve Van Woensel addresses the corner stones for such an advice mechanism to be impartial, evidence-based, transparent and future-proof, while taking into account all actors in the relevant ecosystem and their biases, in sum, to be trustworthy. And this for policy-makers as well the overall society. Lieve Van Woensel focuses on the necessity of careful balancing evidence and the societal views and opinions when informing policy. She advocates a foresight-based concept for scientific advice that bases policy advice on more than scientific evidence by considering societal views as well as policies’ potential effects on society and the environment. She explains how to make scientific advisory strategies holistic, zooming out to the broad picture of the problem and identifying the relevant sources of input, stakeholders, influences and related policies. She draws attention to the variety of roles and responsibilities for the various actors, including scientists, policy analysts, policymakers NGOs and other stakeholders. She developed a practical toolkit for policy advisers to anticipate possible future developments in addressing policy issues. Professor Kalypso Nicolaidis (St Antony’s College/ DPIR) chairs.