Governments need to understand the science

At the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE) we have received with hope the recent announcement of the creation of a National Scientific Advisory Office which, as declared by the President of the Government Pedro Sánchez on February 9, will report to the Moncloa Presidency.

From COSCE we had claimed the need for Spain for an organization similar to those that exist in other advanced countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom.

If the last pandemic showed us anything, it was precisely the need for political management to have scientific information available in an agile, rigorous and understandable way.

Last October, Patrick Vallance, who was an advisor to the British government between 2018 and 2023, wrote an article in the scientific magazine

Science

about what scientific advice to rulers should be like.

Vallance began his text with a statement that is the key to explaining the need for these organizations in modern governments: “Governments need to understand science.”

And he went on to say that this statement is obvious when thinking about defense, security, health, climate change or loss of diversity, but that it also extends to other areas of government activity in which it may seem less clear, such as urban planning, education, transportation, food, the administration of justice, communication systems or the use of artificial intelligence to improve public services.

We already live in a technological civilization in which science is present or behind practically any human activity.

Seven of the ten largest companies in the world are based on science and technology.

And if we think about our environment we see that science is continually part of our daily lives, whether we are aware of it or not.

At the same time, a worrying rejection of scientific knowledge has begun to grow, fundamentally driven by populist positions.

A rejection that is based on misinformation or scientific ignorance.

For all these reasons, the scientific advisory office that has just been created in Spain is so necessary.

But its effectiveness will depend on the type of structure it is equipped with.

At COSCE we believe that this advice should come from commissions made up of leading and independent scientists.

There are enough scientists in Spain to form these commissions, coming from public research organizations, universities, companies and already existing and transversal scientific organizations such as our own confederation, which brings together 88 scientific societies from all fields of knowledge and which have more than 40,000 members.

It is very important for the proper functioning of this new National Scientific Advisory Office that it is very clear to society, the political class and the people who are part of the scientific system that it is not about scientists doing politics, nor that the Government calls the expert on duty only when a need arises.

It is not even a question of the people responsible for political management blindly following scientific advice.

What it is about is that the Government has a scientific structure that advises the powers that be and, therefore, that political management is carried out with the necessary scientific information to be able to make informed, well-scientifically informed political decisions.

Patrick Vallance ended his Science

magazine article

with a warning: “Scientific advice cannot be followed slavishly, but if decision makers ignore it or treat it as a box-ticking exercise, then the systems that support social well-being will be in trouble.” risk.

The clearest example of this is climate change, and we are witnessing the results of that crisis.”

The creation of the new scientific advisory office by the Government of Spain represents, at least, the confirmation that the Government detects this need for advice, which we at COSCE applaud and share.

Perla Wahnón Benarroch

is the president of the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE).

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