Science in Government

New course offering for 2026, scheduled in the Winter session. Teaching intensive delivered 13-17 July. NB: class dates overlap with second semester. Governments around the world are increasingly confronted with a complex interplay of environmental, social, and economic challenges at both global and local levels. Changes in politics are putting pressure on democratic institutions and political norms, including growing struggles over the legitimacy of science as a trusted source of knowledge to guide policy action. Yet, it remains a truism that effective government decision-making relies upon access to relevant and timely information. However, evidence-informed policy cannot be taken for granted. It requires concerted work both by policy professionals and academic researchers, and other knowledge holders, to ensure that the right information gets to the right people at the right time. This course explores past, present and future challenges and opportunities for science in government. In doing so, it will provide students with the knowledge and skills to think critically about the role of knowledge in democratic societies and act more decisively in interpreting, commissioning, and promoting the use of research evidence in policy settings. The course is appropriate for a range of students. These include: students from STEM backgrounds seeking to better understand how STEM research can be designed and promoted to reach policy audiences; students interested in careers in public policy (e.g. the Australian Public Service) or governance (e.g. United Nations, Non-Governmental Organisations, etc.) who will be expected to access, interpret and use research evidence in their roles; and students from social sciences and humanities seeking to deepen their critical understanding of how knowledge of different kinds come to matter in democratic societies. The course will cover a range of topics, including understanding the political nature of knowledge; the role and interaction of different knowledge systems; barriers to, and enablers of, knowledge exchange among scientists and decision-makers; political challenges to the use of evidence; the production of expertise and scientific advice; and the means by which governments justify their decisions to a public audience. The course will allow students to develop skills in synthesising scientific knowledge focusing on contemporary sustainability issues, producing engagement outputs for a policy audience, and developing strategies to improve the uptake of research in decision-making. This course is co-taught with postgraduate students but assessed separately.