September 20, 2018
FABBS has partnered with Research!America (R!A) and 15 like-minded organizations to support the Bipartisan Civic Engagement Initiative (BCEI) designed to incentivize and encourage civic engagement by early-career scientists/researchers with the public and candidates running for national office regarding the societal benefits of federally-supported research and innovation.
The initiative responds to a R!A-commissioned national public opinion survey which revealed that the majority of Americans agree it is vital for scientists/researchers to “inform the public and elected officials about their research and its impact on society.” Survey respondents further agreed that scientists should have a role in shaping public policy in education, job creation, national defense, among other areas, in addition to their role in health and medical research.
Specifically, the Bipartisan Civic Engagement Initiative is providing small grants ($1,000 – $5,000) to the following ten graduate and post-doc student science policy groups to support activities such as roundtable discussions with candidates, community science events, media outreach, social media engagement, webinars, and lab tours.
- The Graduate & Professional Student Senate Science and Policy Group – University of Washington;
- The Science Policy Group – University of California, San Francisco;
- Vanderbilt Science Policy Group – Vanderbilt University;
- Johns Hopkins Science Policy Group – Johns Hopkins University;
- Catalysts for Science Policy (CaSP) – The University of Wisconsin, Madison;
- Science Policy Initiative – University of Virginia (SPI UVA) and Cville Comm-UNI-ty;
- SciPac [Science Policy, Advocacy, and Communication] – University of California San Diego;
- Missouri Science & Technology Policy Fellows (MOST) – University of Missouri;
- The Science Policy Group – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and
- South Carolina Psychiatric Association and South Carolina Medical Association Student Sections – Medical University of South Carolina.
BCEI is part of the National Science Policy Network (NSPN)’s microgrant awards program.
