Science & Technology Policy

  1. Home
  2. Research & Impact
  3. Strategic Focus Areas
  4. Science & Technology Policy
Science, photo by Daniel Chen

Science and technology play a central role in our contemporary lives, intersecting with multiple areas of public policy from the environment and human health to national security, and international affairs. Policy issues are often complex and contentious, requiring collaborations between academia, government, industry and the public. Our Science and Technology initiative aims to:

  1. Showcase and support the science and technology research, teaching and public engagement efforts within the School
  2. Create new opportunities for cross-campus and cross-sector (government, industry, NGO) collaboration in research, education/training, public engagement and network building related to science and technology policy.

The initiative brings together a multidisciplinary cohort of faculty and students from across the UMD campus to improve understanding, analysis and intervention in science and technology policymaking. We will leverage and build on existing efforts to create a strong identity of local and national leadership in S&T policy within the School and across the UMD campus. Existing units within the School that have ongoing S&T policy work include:

With our proximity to Washington, D.C. and Annapolis, our historical interest in S&T policy issues and our breadth and depth of expertise, we are striving to become the local and national leader in the science, technology and policy interface. Demand for such expertise is growing as Congress and state legislatures, government agencies and citizens look for expert information on issues of national interest.

Additionally, universities need to demonstrate the impact of their publicly-funded research and land grant universities, such as UMD, have an obligation to support S&T policy.  Over the past several years, the UMD campus community has shown increased interest and demand to learn how to more effectively engage in S&T policy and to increase their impact on local, national and international issues relevant to their research expertise.

Recent News

View More News View More Events

Faculty

Anand Patwardhan
Professor; Senior Fellow, CGS

Anand Patwardhan is professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was earlier a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay.

Areas of Interest
  • climate change; mitigation & adaptation; clean technology; technology & innovation policy
Read Full Bio
Charles Harry
Associate Research Professor; Director, GoTech; Senior Research Associate, CISSM

Charles Harry is a senior leader, practitioner and researcher with over 20 years of experience in intelligence and cyber operations. Harry is the director of the Center for Governance of Technology and Systems (GoTech) and Associate Research Professor in the School of Public Policy.

Areas of Interest
  • International security; cybersecurity; data science; complexity theory; intelligence
Read Full Bio
Steve Fetter
Professor; Senior Fellow, CISSM

Steve Fetter has been a professor in the School of Public Policy since 1988, serving as dean from 2005 to 2009. He also has served as associate provost and dean of the Graduate School and as associate provost for academic affairs. 

Areas of Interest
  • Nuclear arms control & nonproliferation; nuclear energy & releases of radiation; climate change; low-carbon energy supply
Read Full Bio

Courses You Might be Interested In

PLCY689L Influence of Science on Policy, and of Policy on Science
3 Credit(s)

This course explores how scientific and technical information gets used (or not used) in the formation of public policy, and how public policy influences science and technology development. Students will come away from this course with a fundamental understanding of the institutional landscape of S&T policy, the instruments of S&T policy implementation, and the processes of S&T policy decision-making. The landscape encompasses government, business, academic institutions, and NGOs. The policy mechanisms include government subsidies for research and development, enforcement of intellectual property rights, encouragement of public understanding of S&T, and much more. The processes range from direct democracy and litigation to legislative and bureaucratic decision-making. Along the way, students will examine some of the most challenging S&T-linked public-policy issues of the 21st century – climate change, energy, national security, innovation, spectrum allocation, environmental monitoring, agricultural productivity, the pursuit of sustainable economic development – and will grapple with the interlinked issues of S&T education, and the level of public participation in S&T decision making.

Schedule of Classes