Advances in data science are transforming society. They have the potential to significantly improve the lives of all citizens through, for example, the more effective delivery of public and private services, earlier and more accurate diagnosis of disease, and potentially even helping to solve climate change.
However, the collection, retention and use of data also raises important social, ethical and moral issues. Effective public engagement is one way in which policy making in this area could be better socially informed and therefore more effective in the long run.
In the autumn of 2017, we brought together researchers and policy makers working on data science research and policy to explore public engagement priorities. You can find the briefing paper for this workshop here.
The workshop identified a number of cross-cutting issues which underpin the development of policy in a number of departments. See the workshop report for more details. The Sciencewise team is currently exploring with policy makers the potential for targeted public engagement in one or more of these issue areas to support policy development.
If you are a policy maker or researcher working in this area and would like to find out more, please contact Simon Burall ([email protected]).
You may also be interested in a number of public dialogues supported by Sciencewise in this area.