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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — An event organized by RTI International called “Trust in Science,” held at RTI’s Research Triangle Park headquarters in July, provided researchers an opportunity to collaborate and brainstorm how to raise the public’s confidence in science. Now a new publication from RTI Press has summarized the takeaways from the event.
“We hope this publication will become an open-source set of suggestions for future initiatives and innovations aimed at increasing public trust in science,” said Brian Southwell, PhD, director of our Science in the Public Sphere program and a lead organizer of the “Trust in Science” event. “Our mission, which we share with so many scientists around the world, depends on it.”
“Trust in Science” included representatives of other nonprofit research institutions, universities, foundations and associations from the RTP area. The one-day summit included discussion of issues involving vaccines, wearable technologies, swine waste management and survey research, among others. The intent of the gathering was to create links among professionals with a stake in public trust in science — and to generate ideas for how to build trust.
The publication, titled “Building and Maintaining Trust in Science: Paths Forward for Innovations by Nonprofits and Funding Organizations,” summarizes survey responses from attendees of the event. The survey included questions about perceived challenges related to trust in science.
Ideas commonly cited in the survey responses included improving the ability to reproduce and disseminate scientific content, equipping audiences to critically engage with science, educating scientists on how to effectively communicate their work to the public and collaborating to correct misinformation.
To view the full publication, visit: www.rti.org/rti-press-publication/trust-in-science.
