Headline: Biden Brings Back Science to the Table

Author: Stephanie Logue

In order to combat social justice, climate change, and economic growth, America’s 46th president needs to use government policies and technology. By appointing the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to his Cabinet, President Joe Biden is making science part of the decision-making process again. 

Eric Lander was asked by Biden to lead the OSTP. Lander was one of the founders of the Human Genome Project and is now the president of MIT and Harvard’s Wide Institute. He was also President Barack Obama’s co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. 

Consumer Technology Association (CTA) President and CEO Gary Shapiro said he looks forward to working with the new OSTP and offering a forward-thinking approach to how technology will continue to act as a tool to support the country. “President-elect Biden’s decision to elevate the Office of Science and Technology Policy to Cabinet level reflects tech’s vital role in solving pressing challenges—from creating a cleaner environment to conquering the pandemic,” he said. In Biden’s nomination letter, he asked five specific questions:

 “1. What can we learn from the pandemic about what is or ought to be possible to address the widest range of needs related to our public health?”        

“2. How can breakthroughs in science and technology create new solutions to address climate change–propelling market-driven change, jump-starting economic growth, improving health, and growing jobs, especially in communities that have been left behind?”

“3. How can the US ensure that it is the world leader in the technologies and industries of the future that will be critical to our economic prosperity and national security, especially in competition with China?”                              

“4. How can we guarantee that the fruits of science and technology are fully shared across America and among all Americans?”          

“5. How can we ensure the long-term health of science and technology in our nation?”            

Tom Wheeler, a previous Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman and currently a visiting fellow with The Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation, said including the head of the OSTP to the Cabinet sends the message that after four years of the administration taking the opposite approach, both science and technology are once again guiding principles.

 “The new administration should concentrate on how technology can help provide solutions to these existential crises,” Wheeler said. He also stated that “an easy one to envision is broadband policy: connecting those who are not connected because they don’t have access, or they can’t afford it; that one thing hits four of those issues.”

He also said that with all businesses, government policies and the policy-making process should follow an agile strategy. In response to the Industrial Revolution, he said, the current government regulatory agencies that we know today were established, which resulted in a hierarchy centered on rules and a rigid method.

Of course, Biden’s administration has priorities: the coronavirus vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccine is “a testament to technology and science,” Deese explained, but added that the operational challenge of “getting the vaccines into people’s arms will be one of the most costly and complex issues in our country’s history.” 

This is a start to this much anticipated outcome. With the next step, everyone is looking forward to a more detailed plan and how it will happen. 

Photo: sciencebusiness.net/Richard Hudson