SCOPE report recommends effective, two-way S&T strategies for federal departments

The Council of Science and Technology Advisors (CSTA) has weighed in with a series of recommendations on how the federal government can improve its S&T communications in a rapidly evolving environment in which S&T is increasingly important to all facets of society and the economy.

The four recommendations urge government departments and agencies to develop an tailored S&T strategies by increasing resources for communications, ensuring that communications flow both ways and making communications an integral part of S&T management and policy.

Entitled Science Communications and Opportunities for Public Engagement (SCOPE), the slim volume is short on specifics and lacks any analysis of the current state of federal S&T communications policy or performance. SCOPE was developed and written under the direction of Dr Peter Johnson, a professor of physical geography at the Univ of Ottawa and chair of the Canadian Polar Commission.

Despite the vague nature of its recommendations, the report has been wholehearted endorsed by Dr Rey Pagtakhan, CSTA chair and secretary of state for science, research and development.

“The key message (of the report) is how best to communicate. We need an S&T strategy and this report highlights the demand that every new S&T program and policy thrust has a communications strategy component.”

Pagtakhan says he hopes the report will help to achieve what he terms the three ‘Ds’ — dialogue, deliberations and decision-making — and generate opportunities to create new knowledge and disseminate it widely. He will be sharing the report with his colleagues at the G-8 science minister’s meeting next month in Berlin.

At home, 2,500 copies of the report have been printed and will be circulated to parliamentarians, ministers and departments.

“I appreciate the hard work of the CSTA on this report,” says Pagtakhan. “This is very significant.

The report can be obtained at: www.csta-cest.ca

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