We here in the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR) recognize that we are in both urgent and opportune times. Science, technology, and policy issues are as pressing, dynamically changing and important as ever.

As evidence of this, last week former White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director and Science Advisor (1998-2001) Neal Lane issued a strong call to the next US President – be it Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson or Jill Stein – to place ‘laser focus’ on science and technology policy.

In making five clear recommendations for each the next US president and the next US president’s science advisor, Lane appealed to the successor to Obama. He said, “considering the many policy challenges that relate to science and technology and the accelerating pace of scientific discovery and technology innovation across the globe, it is critically important that the president move quickly to appoint the science adviser and organize a capable OSTP that can begin to engage the many executive departments and agencies that support R&D and rely on advances in science and technology to carry out their missions.”

This is a critical juncture in our history. More now than ever there is tremendous need for honest brokers like CSTPR at the University of Colorado-Boulder who can develop, maintain and continue active collaborations so that scientific work finds traction in political, cultural and social arenas.

While intertwined challenges proliferate, and we in CSTPR press ahead through our collective capacity to pursue research, teaching and service projects to confront the urgent needs to improve our understandings of how the quality of decision-making can catalyze and enhance webs of interaction between science, technology, politics, policy and society.

Going forward, through this re-energized Prometheus blog (call it ‘Prometheus 2.0’ if you will), we will profile a number of these research endeavors, initiatives and commitments as we work to help a range of audiences, stakeholders and user groups make sense of the dimensions of science and technology policy that coarse through the veins of our shared social body.

CSTPR Core Faculty and Research Associates, along with Affiliates, Graduate and Undergraduate students, Postdoctoral researchers and Visitors will be contributing in this space with great energy, reflecting renewed ambition of the CSTPR community.

Contemporary demands are such that science-technology-policy research is vital to understanding and improving how scientific ways of knowing can be more readily ‘usable’ for wider communities of researchers, practitioners and everyday people. Watch this space.

Max Boykoff, CSTPR Director

Augusto González has joined CSTPR through December 2016 while he is on an EU Fellowship from the European Commission in Brussels. Below is a portion of a blog post from Augusto’s Exploring Space Commercialisation in Colorado Blog.

On August 17th I met Major General (Ret.) Jay Lindell at the State of Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT).

OEDIT’s mission is to promote Colorado industry domestically and internationally and promote Colorado as the right place for companies to set up their businesses.

Jay Lindell is Colorado’s Aerospace and Defence Industry Champion, a position created following the publication of the Brookings Institution report “Launch! Taking Colorado’s Space Economy to the Next Level”.

The report advised the state to “brand and relentlessly market Colorado’s space economy” suggesting that a dedicated “sector champion…can further these efforts while at the same time spearheading space cluster development and ensuring regular dialogue with stakeholders.”

I had a long and interesting conversation with Jay Lindell who has taken his role to heart. He emphasised that the key to Colorado’s success in attracting and keeping aerospace industry is the state’s very favourable business climate and its attractive natural environment. Read more …

by Abigail Ahlert, CSTPR Writing Intern

In 2004, blogging was in its infancy. According to Google Trends, online interest in blogs was at a mere 16% of its eventual peak in 2009. Social networks that help people share their blogs today were years away from popularity. It was at this time that Shep Ryen, a student at the University of Colorado’s Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR), created the blog “Prometheus”.

Ryen, who now holds a position at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the Natural Resources and Environment Team, started Prometheus as a term project for one of his graduate courses in science policy offered by CSTPR. Prometheus was—and is today—designed as an informal outlet for news, information, and opinion on science and technology policy. Inspired by this novel outlet for information, Roger Pielke Jr., then the director of CSTPR, took it upon himself to support Ryen’s project and provide material for the blog.

By 2006, Prometheus had garnered significant attention. It was featured in multiple articles praising the role of scientists in the “blogosphere”, including one in National Geographic News and another in Science Policy Forum. It was named as one of the 50 most popular science blogs in Nature News.

As blogging gained popularity and public interest in climate change grew, Prometheus readership expanded. In 2010 the CSTPR website was one of the most heavily trafficked websites on the CU-Boulder campus, in large part due to Prometheus. But when the blog required more upkeep than Pielke and CSTPR were able to provide, Pielke retired Prometheus and continued blogging on his personal site.

Prometheus lay dormant until 2013, when it was revived mostly as a source for CSTPR news. Today, there are big plans for its future. Prometheus 2.0 will soon be regularly featuring content from CSTPR core faculty, research associates, postdocs, visitors, students and affiliates to serve as a resource for science and technology decision makers. This new dynamism will reflect the new energies and pursuits taking place in and around the Center. The blog will now span a broader range of news, research updates and opinion writing. Prometheus is being revamped to improve how science and technology policies address societal needs, through research and education.

Stay tuned for the upgraded Prometheus, coming soon!