Working at the interface between academia and policy, by Barbara Prainsack MAE#
Professor Barbara Prainsack MAE shares her experiences of the vital relationship between academia and policy.
About Barbara Prainsack#
Barbara Prainsack is a Professor for Comparative Policy Analysis at the Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna and Professor of Sociology at the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine at King’s College London. A political scientist, her expertise lies at the interface of policy and biomedicine and life science, and policy and forensics respectively. In 2017 Professor Prainsack was appointed by President Jean-Claude Juncker to be a Member of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies
, advising the European Commission. She was elected to the Human Mobility, Governance, Environment and Space section of Academia Europaea in 2019.
How political science influences my work#
How does your background in political science influence your recent work?
Why policy-related work is important to me#
You are involved in policy-related work at national and European levels. How is this important to you?
But there is also another part of the story. I think many academics struggle – if not permanently, then from time to time – with seeing how our work is meaningful. Unlike bakers, builders, gardeners, or hairdressers, who see the fruits of their labour if not immediately then relatively soon, many of us do not see the results of our research for a long time, or ever. Add to that a culture of overwork, which is becoming the norm in many countries, and you can see why so many academics burn out (not to mention the strain on those who are precariously employed). Some of us derive a lot of meaning from teaching, because of the human contact and the ability to see how we can make positive impacts. But in some countries the joy of teaching is tainted, due to excessive teaching administration and constant performance monitoring – of both students and of teachers! For me, doing policy-related work is one of the spaces where I do see the fruits of my labour, where I get to interact with interesting people who I do not normally encounter in my day-to-day work. I learn a lot from them that cannot be found in academic articles or books. This is my “safe space”, and I am lucky in that my university supports that I do this work.”
The importance of the ‘Making Sense of Science’ SAPEA report#
The AE Cardiff Hub led the coordination of an evidence review on Making sense of science for policy under conditions of complexity and uncertainty. Why is this report so important?
that can be solved within the bounds of the nation state.
Today, there is increasing acknowledgement that policy problems are complex, include epistemic and other uncertainties, and that not every problem can be solved by science. It is for this reason that a report that discusses how, under such circumstances, science and policy can work together to produce knowledge to address societal challenges, is so important.”
More about Barbara Prainsack#
Recent books:
- Solidarity in Biomedicine and Beyond
- Personalized Medicine. Empowered Patients in the 21st Century?
Recent academic papers:
- The political economy of digital data: introduction to the special issue
- Logged out: Ownership, exclusion and public value in the digital data and information commons
- Big Data Governance Needs More Collective Responsibility: The Role of Harm Mitigation in the Governance of Data Use in Medicine and Beyond
Publications:
- Solidarity
