EYCN Podcast - Chemistry To Your Ears · European Young Chemists' Network

Science Policy

·45 min·4 clips

Martin reveals why scientific arguments often don't have absolute priority in policymaking decisions.

Marie starts with a practical concern. Scientists can help shape policy, yet culture and communication still keep many of them outside the room. COVID-19 gives the discussion its first hard example, with scientific councils helping limit social fallout. The IPCC offers another case, where evidence pushes climate decisions into political territory. Chemistry gets a wide lens here. The chemical sciences are tied to global challenges, uncertainty, and the sometimes awkward handoff between expertise and policy. Professor Jovana Milic comes in from the science side. Her work as an assistant professor at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, leading the Smart Energy Materials Group at the Adolf Merkel Institute, sits alongside early outreach and policy-facing work. The networks do a lot of the heavy lifting. NASPOD becomes one route for early career researchers across natural and social sciences to work near the science policy interface. Switzerland gives the conversation a concrete setting, with partnerships involving Voraus and REACH, plus Geneva-based institutions like GSPI and the Geneva Science Diplomacy Initiative. GESDA adds a future-facing angle, especially around preparing policy before technology and global problems outrun the usual process. Capacity building keeps coming back: webinars, workshops, institutional partnerships, and science advice through the Global Young Academy's Science Advice Working Group. Young scientists stay at the center. A masterclass for the International Conference of Young Scientists and the Global Young Academy meeting in Washington, D.C. gives that work a practical shape. The ending is encouraging, but measured: more scientists can enter policy, if they learn how advice actually moves.

As heard by us

A grounded look at how scientists move from evidence to influence.

The episode keeps science policy rooted in the practical question of how researchers shape decisions on climate and other global challenges. Marie sets that frame cleanly, then Jovana Milic and a policy-side guest follow the path from research to advice, diplomacy, and…

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a clear route from science to policy.

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