Our Mission & History

Science, Technology, and Public Policy

"Science is more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been before… [and] many of the challenges that science and technology will help us meet are global in character." - President Barack Obama's Speech to the National Academy of Sciences, April 27, 2009.

Our Vision

The science and technology (S&T) enterprise is increasingly central to global transformations and developments; S&T policy, in turn, by virtue of its key role in guiding and managing this enterprise, is also gaining in importance. From climate change to renewable energy, from broadband policy to cybersecurity, science and technology permeate all of society and everyday life, often playing a central, even essential role in almost every aspect.

It is therefore critical to understand how we may be able to best realize the potential of science and technology in improving the human condition, underpinning economic and social development, supporting human endeavors, and promoting international relations, being cognizant of and addressing societal concerns that often accompany such advances.

Public policy plays a central role in mediating this interface between science and technology and society. Among its most potent impacts, policy shapes innovation—and is therefore the key to society translating knowledge into technologies and products that benefit all, in time. In today's globalized world, innovation can be swift and its possibilities rich; in the digital world innovation is at once in the hands of many, yet still complex and involving many actors and institutions. Public policy has a particularly important role to play shaping these relations, supporting and catalyzing research, and accelerating diffusion by many paths. As our networked world is already transforming these dynamics, gaining rapid insight to trends in technology and innovation as they unfold, and how public policy may affect them positively is critical to contributing to the challenges of our times.

We take as our mission to examine and shape the conduct of the S&T enterprise, its interactions with societies and economies worldwide, and the role of public policy in strengthening this enterprise and its contribution to human well-being. We help advance knowledge about the role of public policy in the S&T enterprise and develop and promote policies that enhance its positive global impact.

STPP Strategy

Our scholarship is integrative and interdisciplinary. We engage in research, teaching, and outreach on how:

science and technology influence public policy;
public policy influences the evolution of science and technology;
the outcomes of these interactions affect well-being in the United States and worldwide;
the processes involved can be made more effective and their outcomes more beneficial

The cross-disciplinary nature of the S&T enterprise requires that our research initiatives be collaborative. We therefore prize collaborations and partnerships with faculty across Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, and other institutions.

Our core activities center around four thematic areas where public policy and innovation play an important role, with a view that includes their global implications:

Access to energy underpins human and economic development, while access to a clean environment is critical for human well-being. Energy and environment are also intimately interlinked, given the large impact of energy extraction, conversion, and use on the environment. Key issues of interest include the study of the processes of technological innovation in the fields of energy and environment and the design of policies and institutions can shape and accelerate the development and deployment of technologies to promote energy access and energy security, to mitigate, adapt and reduce vulnerability to climate change, and to reduce other environmental and health impacts from industrial activities.
Technology is an integral part of the international security arena, both by virtue of its role in weapons systems as well as monitoring of programs and activities, whether as part of a compliance regime under international treaties or for general observation. Areas of focus include the disposition and management of nuclear materials, nuclear weapons programs, nuclear energy, arms-control treaties and programs, technology and terrorism, military technologies, and weaponization of space.
Information and communciations technologies are transforming almost every aspect of our day-to-day lives, thereby opening up opportunities for positive contributions to society. Studies in this area include assessing the potential for new forms of civic engagement and the governance of democratic institutions enabled by ICT; understanding how new media tools and ICT-enabled social media will shape the next waves of enterprise change; understanding issues in ICT-enabled reforms and redesign of top-down production to network-enabled collaboration and governance; fostering the transition to digital technologies in the developing world where ICTs may accelerate improvements in health, prosperity, and security; understanding the roles and potential impacts of new and emerging ICTs on our great challenges; issues in securing the nation's cyber infrastructure while maintaining the free flow of information in an open society; and contemporary issues in the use and regulation of telecommunications, the Internet, and the emerging national broadband plan.
The interactions between technological innovation and globalization have profound implications for developing countries. Advances in science and technology, for example, offer new tools to promote sustainable development and put sectors such as agriculture at the center of efforts to spur economic development. How best to align science and technology missions with regional development goals and promote economic integration? How can "green growth" strategies that focus on eco-efficiency promote cross-border collaboration and economic development? Through research, training, and policy analysis, articulation of such issues can promote the diffusion of scientific and technological knowledge, promote wise investment, help develop technical expertise, foster entrepreneurial capabilities, and illuminate the path forward to economic transformation.

Our Vision

STPP Strategy

S&T, Energy, and Environment

S&T and International Security

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) & Innovation

Globalization, Development, & Innovation