A guide to science advocacy
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A guide to science advocacy By Kevin J. Whittlesey
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dvocacy is a critically important part of the activities that the Government Affairs Committee (GAC) undertakes on behalf of Materials Research Society (MRS) members. The GAC is constantly working to educate members of the US Congress and other policymakers about materials research and why it is important to the economy and to the scientific enterprise. But all scientists need to know how to be effective advocates. This article aims to provide MRS members with insight into a few specific things that you can do to engage in advocacy on behalf of the materials research community. Advocacy is a very broad term that takes on many forms across a range of issue areas. Addressing all of the manifestations of advocacy is beyond the scope of this article. This is intended to highlight a few key ways in which MRS members can get involved.
1. Be informed.
An important first step to being an advocate is to keep up with current events, not only the mainstream news, but also news specifically pertaining to what is happening in Congress. The policy landscape can change quickly. Current events often have enormous impacts on policy as lawmakers respond to new developments, and it is important to keep track of the issues that are of interest to you.
Being aware of current events is important for several reasons. Issues can arise quickly, such as a new piece of legislation, which affects the MRS community either positively or negatively. Some of these might be the kind of issues that the MRS GAC sends out as a Public Affairs Alert, such as a possible funding cut to an important federal agency, seeking members to write letters. However, there may be other issues that affect your local community, institution, or research discipline, so you need to be able to identify those. Another important reason to keep up with current events is to be aware of circumstances that might influence your advocacy efforts. What happens in the news has an enormous impact on the conversations and issues taken up by Congress. That can significantly influence the timing or framing of a particular position or issue that you want to advocate for. For example, when I was working in the US House of Representatives as the MRS/OSA Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow, an advocacy group was seeking support for a piece of legislation that would limit the FDA’s authority to regulate certain kinds of food products. They made this request in the middle of an outbreak of a foodborne illness. Regardless of whatever the merits of their request might have been, the optics would
be terrible for any member of Congress to support that kind of request at that particular time. Timing can be everything in an advocacy effort! There are a number of ways in which you can stay informed about recent science policy developments. Mainstream news outlets typically cover the Congressional budget process and other activities in Congress on some level, so mainstream news sources can be very helpful to know the overall landsca
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