A national coalition of young scientists with a New Hampshire presence is gathering candidates’ opinions on a questionnaire that asks about topics like climate change, artificial intelligence and vaccines, reflecting an increasing push by researchers to get more publicly involved in policy and politics.
The questionnaire, called Stance on Science, is from the Scientist Network for Advancing Policy or SNAP. The non-partisan group was formed last year and calls itself a “still ongoing gathering of science policy-minded early career researchers” that wants lawmakers to have access to more evidence-based information from legitimate science.
“Me, on my own, doing research is great … But to cause the most change, the political world is a great way to do that,” said Jessa Burling, a third-year graduate student in neuroscience in the Doucette Lab at Dartmouth who is the state lead for SNAP in New Hampshire and Vermont.
New Hampshire’s SNAP presence mostly involves researchers and students at Dartmouth College but Burling said SNAP is not associated with Dartmouth or any other institution.
The questionnaire has responses from candidates in 19 states so far, answering a half-dozen questions that differ from state to state. The five New Hampshire questions concern land use, vaccines, natural disasters, A.I. and the electric grid. Nine candidates have responded so far in races from state representative to U.S. Senate.
The questionnaire, called Stance on Science, can be seen at snapcoalition.org/initiatives/stance-on-science.
SNAP also organizes meetings of lawmakers with researchers, provides small grants for student organizations, and gives training to researchers about the intersection of science and policy because, Burling said, “No matter who is in power, they are inherently linked.”
Many academics have shown more interest in getting involved with politics due to the Trump administration’s approach to science, notably its slashing of research budgets, destruction of existing databases and reports, and attempt to give political appointees final authority over what gets studied.
