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Biologists Must Advocate for Science

Part 1: Biologists Must Advocate for Science

00:00:06.20 Hello, my name is Tom Pollard
00:00:08.20 and I'm a professor at Yale University.
00:00:10.22 I'd like to share with you in a few minutes
00:00:14.06 my belief of why biologists must
00:00:17.14 be good advocates of the science that they do.
00:00:20.04 I'm sure you're all aware, at least
00:00:26.03 that in principle, where the funds
00:00:28.06 come from for our research.
00:00:30.00 Some of it comes from private organizations,
00:00:31.27 but the vast amount of money
00:00:35.11 that supports biological research comes from
00:00:37.23 the National Institutes of Health,
00:00:39.13 the National Science Foundation,
00:00:41.24 and other agencies of the federal government.
00:00:44.25 So the answer to the first question
00:00:47.23 is that the federal government is supporting
00:00:49.25 most of our research, for which we
00:00:51.15 are all grateful.
00:00:53.09 So, who advocates for federal funds?
00:00:56.09 And you have to appreciate that
00:00:59.00 virtually everyone who has any
00:01:02.22 sort of organization in the United States
00:01:05.10 is impacted in some way by federal funds.
00:01:08.02 So consider the kinds of people
00:01:09.29 who would be considered about the legislative process
00:01:12.14 which I just described.
00:01:14.00 They include oil companies, it includes banks,
00:01:18.06 it includes insurance companies, it includes
00:01:20.19 educators, it includes medical schools,
00:01:23.10 it includes doctors, it includes people
00:01:25.27 who are in favor or against guns,
00:01:28.10 it includes virtually every organized group
00:01:33.09 in the country.
00:01:34.23 And all of them are looking out for themselves.
00:01:37.03 And we have to look out for ourselves
00:01:40.05 as well, because we're competing
00:01:41.27 with all of them for a limited amount
00:01:44.09 of federal funds.
00:01:45.17 So, who advocates for biomedical research?
00:01:49.07 Well historically, this has been the
00:01:51.06 provence of two different kinds of organizations.
00:01:55.25 On one side, we've had the voluntary health
00:01:57.23 organizations, such as the American Cancer Society,
00:02:01.13 the Juvenile Diabetes Society, which have
00:02:04.22 patients and their families who are concerned
00:02:07.13 about a particular disease.
00:02:08.14 And they bring their cause to
00:02:11.14 the federal government and argue in favor
00:02:13.04 for funding for those specific diseases,
00:02:16.03 and they are great allies for us.
00:02:18.06 Because they care passionately about
00:02:19.26 medical research. Another group
00:02:24.07 that advocates for biomedical research
00:02:26.21 are the organizations that represent the deans
00:02:29.17 of the medical schools and the presidents of
00:02:31.13 research universities. The Association of American
00:02:34.14 Universities and the American Association
00:02:36.02 of Medical Colleges.
00:02:37.21 And traditionally, they've had our best interests
00:02:41.05 in mind. But in the late 1980s, the
00:02:43.20 bench scientist became concerned about the
00:02:46.09 message that the government was receiving
00:02:50.03 about the priorities for the biomedical research
00:02:53.13 community. And a group of us scientists
00:02:56.15 independently organized a third
00:02:59.11 branch of advocacy for biomedical
00:03:03.28 research. And that's what I'd like to tell you a little about now.
00:03:08.28 The problem was, at that time
00:03:12.10 and extend to today, the vast majority of
00:03:16.10 biomedical researchers are completely
00:03:19.14 on the sidelines when it comes to
00:03:22.00 advocating for our own needs,
00:03:25.03 that is the funds to support our very worthy work.
00:03:28.22 And this is very disturbing to me because
00:03:30.22 we have a very virtuous cause compared
00:03:32.28 to many of the other causes that are advocated
00:03:35.11 for by other groups in the country.
00:03:39.21 And it's also disturbing to me because we
00:03:42.25 have a very highly educated articulate group
00:03:45.15 of people who are vitally dependent
00:03:48.10 on federal funding to do their work.
00:03:51.07 Work that benefits not only every person
00:03:56.06 in the country and in the world,
00:03:58.03 but also benefits greatly the economy of
00:04:01.04 the United States.
00:04:02.03 So we have a virtuous cause and articulate
00:04:04.09 group of advocates, and yet most
00:04:06.11 biomedical scientists have been on the sidelines.
00:04:10.06 So, how can you help?
00:04:13.17 I've got a few suggestions here,
00:04:16.12 and the first one is that you join
00:04:18.04 a professional society that has an
00:04:20.06 advocacy program.
00:04:22.10 This will provide you a built-in
00:04:24.03 environment which you can be successful
00:04:26.08 as an advocate.
00:04:27.19 Many, but not all, of the basic science
00:04:31.19 and clinical research societies do have
00:04:34.20 advocacy efforts. It's relatively new, it's all started
00:04:38.24 in the last 25 years. So check and see
00:04:41.14 whether the society that you're interested in
00:04:44.27 joining does have an advocacy program.
00:04:46.28 Secondly, join your society's advocacy grassroots network.
00:04:54.25 Many, but not all, societies have thousands
00:05:00.04 up to thousands of their members connected
00:05:02.15 by email and other means to
00:05:05.14 allow the members to stay informed about
00:05:07.29 issues in Washington, and to react
00:05:10.04 for requests for help. Help in the form
00:05:13.15 of telephone calls to elected officials
00:05:17.01 or letters to elected officials,
00:05:18.28 so join your society's advocacy network
00:05:21.24 and help out.
00:05:24.16 Then, you can do more. You can actually
00:05:27.24 volunteer to help your society with
00:05:29.18 advocacy. No society has too many
00:05:32.15 people to volunteering to help out
00:05:34.04 with advocacy, so you're volunteering
00:05:37.28 will be very welcome.
00:05:39.16 Another thing you could do is to visit
00:05:43.06 your elected officials at home, in your
00:05:46.08 congressional district or in Washington DC.
00:05:49.20 And many, but not all, scientific societies
00:05:52.28 have organized Capitol Hill days where
00:05:55.00 you can get some help visiting
00:05:58.05 members of Congress. People who've done this
00:06:01.05 find this very energizing and usually return
00:06:03.15 home much better advocates than they
00:06:05.25 were before they put on the Capitol Hill day.
00:06:08.11 And we have many examples around the country
00:06:11.07 where scientists have returned to their home
00:06:14.21 institution and organized very effective local
00:06:19.12 advocacy efforts.
00:06:22.27 A final suggestion here is to let your
00:06:26.02 elected officials know what happens after
00:06:28.14 you've had your grant reviewed.
00:06:31.06 This is an idea from Larry Goldstein and
00:06:33.22 San Diego. I think that it's a brilliant idea
00:06:36.18 and it's rarely done, but it should be very effective
00:06:39.19 if we can get it used more broadly.
00:06:42.10 The idea is, if you get good news,
00:06:45.21 that your grant's been funded, you should write
00:06:47.03 your representative and your two Senators
00:06:51.01 from your state and say "Thank you
00:06:52.20 for helping appropriate the funds
00:06:55.04 that will allow me to do research
00:06:56.25 that will benefit mankind and will stimulate
00:07:00.03 the economy and our city and our state."
00:07:02.17 Equally important would be a good idea to write your
00:07:07.20 representative and your two U.S. Senators if
00:07:11.15 your grant is not funded, and to let them know
00:07:14.02 how disappointed you are that you will not be
00:07:16.26 receiving support from the federal government
00:07:20.01 and how this might set back your
00:07:22.09 research, or how it might result in you having to layoff
00:07:25.09 people in your lab, how it will reduce your ability
00:07:28.23 to purchase goods and services in the city
00:07:31.23 and the state, and that therefore will have a negative
00:07:34.15 economic impact on the state.
00:07:36.14 I think that one of the main problems that
00:07:39.09 a lot of the people who represent us in Congress
00:07:42.19 don't actually know what's going on in their own district
00:07:46.16 and how much we all depend on
00:07:52.08 the federal government for funding. In many
00:07:55.02 cities, for example, let's say Tucson, Arizona,
00:07:59.00 or New Haven, Connecticut, the number one employer
00:08:02.12 in these cities is in fact a university
00:08:06.28 with a large biomedical research operation.
00:08:11.09 Now, one of the things that people
00:08:15.18 are concerned about is that they feel, "Well gosh.
00:08:18.13 I just don't have the stature to go talk to
00:08:20.25 somebody important, like a member of Congress."
00:08:22.25 But I'm afraid you've got it exactly backwards.
00:08:25.17 Members of Congress are very poorly educated
00:08:28.14 in the sciences as things go, and what
00:08:32.00 you'll discover is, if you go to visit your
00:08:34.02 member of Congress, and say, "I'm a scientist.
00:08:36.18 I'm doing research in cellular molecular biology."
00:08:39.27 About the first thing they'll do is apologize for the fact
00:08:43.10 that they last took a science course when they
00:08:47.05 were in high school, and probably didn't do too
00:08:48.28 well at it. And they might try to make a joke out of this
00:08:51.29 and say because they did so poorly
00:08:53.25 in science that they decided to be a politician instead.
00:08:57.14 So, you've got the upper hand when you go to
00:08:59.19 visit your member of Congress. They're going to admire
00:09:01.12 the fact that you're smart enough and really educated
00:09:03.23 enough to be a scientist, and they will
00:09:06.10 listen to what you have to say.
00:09:07.17 They need to hear from you.
00:09:11.01 You might think that just one or two letters
00:09:14.20 wouldn't make a difference, but actually
00:09:17.00 that very small number of letters will be registered
00:09:20.14 as a concern on the part of constituents.
00:09:22.22 And if you could possibly generate 20-30 letters
00:09:25.15 from your congressional district,
00:09:27.15 that would be considered a huge amount of
00:09:30.04 concern on the part of constituents
00:09:32.07 about an issue, in this case, federal
00:09:34.17 funding for biomedical research.
00:09:36.15 So, beyond participating in your society's advocacy
00:09:42.25 program, there are actually some other things
00:09:44.21 that you could do. One is to vote
00:09:47.21 for and support political candidates
00:09:49.28 who value science. It's a perfectly
00:09:52.24 legal and a responsibility of all
00:09:55.16 of us to participate in electoral
00:09:58.20 politics. And that is to support candidates
00:10:01.15 who we favor and you could do this by
00:10:05.22 providing campaign funds for them.
00:10:08.14 It costs $1,000,000 to get elected to the House
00:10:11.12 of Representatives, and $10,000,000 to get
00:10:12.26 elected to the Senate. So they are always
00:10:15.02 looking for financial support.
00:10:16.22 And so, you should get to know your
00:10:19.11 elected officials and contribute to their
00:10:22.02 political campaigns. And let them know you're
00:10:24.20 a contributor when you see them.
00:10:26.05 I even contribute to the political campaigns
00:10:29.16 of members of Congress who
00:10:31.25 do not live in the state of Connecticut.
00:10:34.00 Those particular individuals who are particularly
00:10:36.27 important for their advocacy and are championing
00:10:40.25 the NIH and other science agencies.
00:10:43.17 Second thing you could do would be
00:10:47.05 to share your science in your community.
00:10:49.22 Many communities have science cafes
00:10:53.09 that will volunteer to give a talk at your local
00:10:56.01 science cafe. If by chance you know somebody
00:11:00.26 who's in a service club like a Lion's
00:11:03.12 or Rotary, you could tell them that you'd be willing to come
00:11:06.01 and give a talk about your research.
00:11:07.25 Reach out to your church groups and others in your
00:11:11.28 community. Another thing you could do
00:11:16.08 is to invite elected officials to visit
00:11:18.17 your laboratory. They'll consider this to be a treat.
00:11:21.10 Although, having given you this advice,
00:11:23.26 I must give you a word of caution, too.
00:11:26.07 You need to coordinate this activity with your government
00:11:28.17 affairs people at your university.
00:11:30.27 Because they are actively engaged
00:11:33.03 with interfacing with politicians
00:11:36.16 and they'll want to know that you've done this,
00:11:38.15 and to help coordinate the visit.
00:11:40.09 And finally, if you're really keen about
00:11:43.13 this, you might consider a career in public
00:11:45.29 policy. Some of us, like myself,
00:11:48.18 had a little side career in public policy
00:11:50.15 as we've been pursuing our academic
00:11:53.11 careers. And that's certainly one way to
00:11:55.13 do it, and we could certainly use more
00:11:57.09 help and more leadership in the advocacy community.
00:12:00.09 But others have decided they want to make
00:12:04.15 this a full-time career. And for example,
00:12:07.26 the American Association for the Advancement
00:12:10.18 of Sciences has a beautiful fellowship program
00:12:12.29 that allows scientists to spend a couple of
00:12:16.07 years in Washington DC, either working on Capitol Hill
00:12:19.12 or one of the agencies, to learn about how government
00:12:22.11 works and to become a member of
00:12:26.26 the community. So Washington, thanks
00:12:28.24 to the AAAS, is now heavily populated
00:12:32.01 with people who used to be bench scientists
00:12:34.14 who've transitioned into careers in
00:12:37.03 the federal government through their
00:12:39.29 fellowship programs. I recommend that to you
00:12:42.09 highly. If you want to learn more
00:12:45.25 about what I've just said, I wrote an article
00:12:47.15 for Cell that appeared in 2012.
00:12:50.29 Here's the reference and
00:12:52.25 I provide a lot more details
00:12:55.04 and links so you can hook up with
00:12:57.21 groups in the community in helping scientists
00:13:02.06 be good advocates.

Part 2: The Process of US Science Funding

00:00:08.06 The process is relatively complicated,
00:00:11.16 and I've got a little flow diagram here
00:00:14.26 to give you an overview of how it works.
00:00:17.24 Starting up here at the top,
00:00:19.06 the President proposes a budget to Congress,
00:00:22.22 which under the present circumstances is largely ignored.
00:00:26.12 Then the House and Senate Budget Committees
00:00:29.08 decide how they're going to divide up the funds,
00:00:34.26 very broadly,
00:00:36.16 for the different elements of the federal government,
00:00:38.28 and then turn over a slice of the pie
00:00:42.17 to the Appropriations Committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate,
00:00:47.14 for them to discuss and to decide how to appropriate those funds.
00:00:54.06 Actually, the work is done by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee,
00:00:59.20 for example,
00:01:01.16 that deals with the Department of Health and Human Services for the NIH.
00:01:06.26 Then the entire House and Senate Appropriations Committees
00:01:10.25 take the recommendations from all their subcommittees
00:01:13.19 and come up with a proposal.
00:01:15.20 These are considered by the House and Senate,
00:01:19.08 which vote on them.
00:01:20.23 And then typically they disagree,
00:01:22.20 so then a House/Senate Subcommittee,
00:01:26.00 a Conference Committee,
00:01:28.00 has to decide how to arbitrate the differences.
00:01:30.24 Once that is done, then the House and the Senate
00:01:33.20 separately vote on the same proposal,
00:01:35.24 which is sent to the President for his or her signature.
00:01:41.04 This provides funds for the various agencies,
00:01:44.16 such as the National Institutes of Health,
00:01:47.00 the National Science Foundation,
00:01:48.16 the Department of Energy, and so on,
00:01:50.16 which provide funds for doing research.
00:01:55.24 Over here, in this part of the flow diagram,
00:01:58.23 we see how an Investigator
00:02:01.28 acquires funds from the federal government.
00:02:03.28 First, the Principal Investigator
00:02:06.18 writes a research proposal
00:02:10.02 and submits it to the funding agency,
00:02:11.23 such as NSF or NIH,
00:02:14.04 which then assigns the proposal
00:02:17.20 to an additional review group, or a Study Section.
00:02:20.03 And I've... what I've outlined here is the NIH procedure.
00:02:23.00 It's a little different in the NSF.
00:02:25.05 The Initial Review Group
00:02:28.12 discusses the proposal,
00:02:30.08 along with 50-80 other proposals,
00:02:33.07 and rank orders them.
00:02:35.23 It gives them a priority score.
00:02:37.06 Then the institutes
00:02:39.10 -- the staff and the council of the various institutes --
00:02:42.02 look at the grants that have been reviewed for their applicants
00:02:47.08 and decide on funding.
00:02:49.14 As most of you probably know, it's not strictly...
00:02:53.23 there's not strictly a cut-off between those
00:02:56.20 who get funded and don't get funded
00:02:58.22 in terms of priority scores,
00:03:00.18 but many other things are taken into account in addition to priority scores
00:03:04.06 when making a decision about funding.
00:03:08.07 So, once that is done,
00:03:09.28 then hopefully money has come from the...
00:03:12.08 from the agencies to the...
00:03:16.00 to the NIH and the NSF.
00:03:18.02 And they send some money to the institutions,
00:03:21.04 which set up a research account for the Investigator.
00:03:24.03 So, that's how it works.

Videos in this Talk
  • Part 1: Biologists Must Advocate for Science
    Part 1: Biologists Must Advocate for Science
    Audience:
    • Student
    • Researcher
    • Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
    • Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
  • Part 2: The Process of US Science Funding
    Part 2: The Process of US Science Funding
    Audience:
    • Researcher
    • Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Speaker: Thomas Pollard
Total Duration: 0:16:58
Recorded: March 2015
All Talks in Science and Society

Talk Overview

Tom Pollard argues that, in order to maintain and bolster federal support for science, US lawmakers need to be made aware of the contributions of research and its benefit to society. Even though scientists are ideal to advocate for science, they tend to shy away from advocacy for different reasons. Pollard challenges those reasons and presents many opportunities for everyday scientists to get involved, make a difference, and advocate for science.

Speaker Bio

Thomas Pollard

Thomas Pollard

Tom Pollard is the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University.  He received his BA from Pomona College and his MD from Harvard Medical School.  He was a Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1977-1996 and President of the Salk Institute in San Diego from 1996-2000.  He… Continue Reading

Playlist: Science Communication, Education, & Advocacy

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