The Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy (ISTPP) was created by the Board of Regents in the fall of 2000 to fill a critical gap between science and technology research and public policy research. Through their research, scientists detect emerging problems that require policy actions to address them. For known social and environmental problems, science and technology may help find solutions. Our policy research proactively identifies the public and stakeholder’s acceptability parameters for science and technology applications. By connecting science and technology research to acceptable policy solutions, ISTPP can help solve pressing public problems. ISTPP also provides valuable interdisciplinary research experience for doctoral, masters, and undergraduate students to augment their training as future decision and policy makers and university faculty. Graduate students may also work with scholars as coauthors on manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
Over the years, the ISTPP team has developed a national and international reputation for excellent research that links science, engineering, public health, and medicine to public administration and policy. The key to our research success is that we work directly with science, engineering, public health, and medical colleagues as, through their research, they identify issues that may signal important problems for our nation and the world or that may signal solutions to problems already identified. The nature of the relationship between ISTPP and our interdisciplinary colleagues is a reciprocal one in which we provide information from stakeholders and the public to help guide their basic and applied problem-focused research, and then their findings help us shape and evaluate possible policy solutions. ISTPP engages relevant and affected communities through a variety of methods, including surveys, in-depth interviews, workshops, and focus groups.
ISTPP conducts basic and applied interdisciplinary research in four substantive areas:
- Environment and Natural Resources Policy
- Emerging Technologies and Public Policy
- Infrastructure, Built Environment and Public Policy
- Health and Health Policy
Mission Statement
The Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy conducts nonpartisan, interdisciplinary scholarly examination of public policy issues and communicates research-based knowledge to academics and practitioners and to the public and decision-makers.
