Science to Policy: Operationalizing Knowledge from Education to Society (SPOKES)

Universities are producing more PhD graduates than professor positions, and many advisors lack training to guide non-academic careers. There is growing demand for early-career scientists in policy, where science intersects with key societal challenges. However, few programs prepare students for these opportunities.

This project aims to:

1. Pilot a new version of UCR’s Science to Policy (S2P) certificate course that will incorporate a set of UCR-designed, science-policy learning modules; and
2. Host a series of annual SPOKES Summits whose delegates will be policy professionals. These subject matter experts (SMEs) will collaborate with the SPOKES leadership to assess and refine the science-policy competencies that ground the certificate courses training system.

These summits will culminate in the publication of the SPOKES Framework, which will establish a national standard for science-to-policy education. Thus, in addition to enabling S2P to improve the training it offers to UCR students, the project will also facilitate the SPOKES systems dissemination to other institutions.

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