Programme / III. A Science-based Advice to Policy-Makers in an Era of Alternative Facts

While the practice of delivering independent science-based advice to policy-makers has always been a difficult one, recent developments seem to have added a new dimension of challenge.

The boundary lines between facts, non-facts and uncertainties appear to have become blurred. And increasingly, (parts of) societies do not agree anymore on those facts that form the foundation of any scientific analysis, evaluation and recommendation.

In this thematic session, we will look at some of the ‘standard‘ challenges that providers of science-based advice to policy-makers are faced with globally before turning to those shifts in public debate and perception that may in time require some fundamentally different approaches to science-based policy advice.