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Open science communication: the first year of the UK's Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies

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posted on 2022-01-21, 16:19 authored by Martin McKee, Danny Altmann, Anthony Costello, Karl Friston, Zubaida Haque, Kamlesh Khunti, Susan Michie, Tolullah Oni, Christina Pagel, Deenan Pillay, Steve Reicher, Helen Salisbury, Gabriel Scally, Kit Yates, Linda Bauld, Laura Bear, John Drury, Melissa Parker, Ann Phoenix, Elizabeth Stokoe, Robert West
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the complex relationship between science and policy. Policymakers have had to make decisions at speed in conditions of uncertainty, implementing policies that have had profound consequences for people's lives. Yet this process has sometimes been characterised by fragmentation, opacity and a disconnect between evidence and policy. In the United Kingdom, concerns about the secrecy that initially surrounded this process led to the creation of Independent SAGE, an unofficial group of scientists from different disciplines that came together to ask policy-relevant questions, review the evolving evidence, and make evidence-based recommendations. The group took a public health approach with a population perspective, worked in a holistic transdisciplinary way, and were committed to public engagement. In this paper, we review the lessons learned during its first year. These include the importance of learning from local expertise, the value of learning from other countries, the role of civil society as a critical friend to government, finding appropriate relationships between science and policy, and recognising the necessity of viewing issues through an equity lens.

History

School

  • Social Sciences and Humanities

Department

  • Communication and Media

Published in

Health Policy

Volume

126

Issue

3

Pages

234 - 244

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

© Elsevier

Publisher statement

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Health Policy and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2022.01.006.

Acceptance date

2022-01-13

Publication date

2022-01-15

Copyright date

2022

ISSN

0168-8510

Language

  • en

Depositor

Prof Elizabeth Stokoe. Deposit date: 20 January 2022

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