What can universities, governments, journals, and private funders of research do to ensure they are making the greatest possible efforts toward solving society’s most pressing issues? The Chronicle asked experts for their suggestions. Here is a sampling of the steps they proposed:
Develop statistical approaches to identify the social problems that are most important and most worthy of intensive translational research.
Who could do it: universities and foundations
Reward “project-based solutions” that reduce the dominance of departmental structures that inhibit interdisciplinary work.
Who could do it: universities
Prioritize long-term preventative strategies over short-term cures, which are often favored by supporters who already have a disease or condition.
Who could do it: foundations and political leaders
Conduct more complicated experiments in the real world, while giving less attention and reward to incremental discoveries in controlled lab settings.
Who could do it: universities, researchers, and foundations
Appoint more social scientists to review panels, increasing the likelihood that social considerations will be reflected in research and research-based solutions.
Who could do it: federal grant agencies
Emphasize curricula that develop and promote social-science expertise to help in interdisciplinary realms.
Who could do it: universities
Revise the standard formatting for research papers — with sections for discussion, analysis, comment, and application — to add a section that describes strategies for acting on the article’s findings.
Who could do it: journals
Restructure government agencies to emphasize bottom-line solutions and translational work — a role that basic-science-first agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation are not fully equipped to handle.
Who could do it: federal government
Create government agencies to give lawmakers the best current research on issues they are considering.
Who could do it: state and federal governments
Integrate academics into the leadership of federal agencies to help the translational bridge go both ways.
Who could do it: federal agencies
Sponsor more “grand challenges” that involve research contributions beyond just one university.
Who could do it: universities and foundations
Establish “centers for responsible innovation” that consider the social value of research, much as institutional review boards help ensure human protections.
Who could do it: universities
Create a presidential “Council of Psychological Science Advisers,” modeled on the existing Council of Economic Advisers, to incorporate human behavioral realities into policy decisions.
Who could do it: federal government
Quantify the value of the natural world in financial terms to build economics-based arguments for incorporating environmental concerns into policy decisions.
Who could do it: researchers and foundations
Schedule the release of reports with policy implications for times when the information is most likely to be acted upon by policy makers.
Who could do it: researchers and foundations
Recognize that exceptionally large problems require exceptionally large commitments of time and money.
Who could do it: universities and foundations
