Science and Technology Policy in Global Context

The global context for science and technology policies is changing quickly. Knowledge is flowing around the world ever more freely. International collaboration is growing in every field. Economies that have traditionally grown through innovation face new competition from rising economic powers. Intellectual property regimes are in flux and under attack. Scientists and engineers trained in Europe and North America are returning to their regions of origins more often. Science and technology are embroiled in global regulatory issues like the ground rules for nanotechnology and synthetic biology, renewable and nuclear energy, and access to essential medicines.

The 2012 Gordon Research Conference on Science and Technology Policy will delve deeply into this range of issues, asking how the questions and answers of science and technology policy need to change in response to international developments. The program will tap the best recent research on the global dimensions of research, innovation, human resource, and regulatory policies, as well as perspectives from S&T policy practitioners from around the world.

The 2012 GRC on Science and Technology Policy will also offer for the first time a Gordon Research Seminar organized along the theme of the symposium, which will be held immediately preceding the GRC on Science and Technology Policy. Junior investigators, such as students, postdocs, and trainees, are encouraged to attend.