Presentation of six new scientific evidence reports and new edition of paring scheme at the Congress of Deputies
The Science and Technology Office of the Congress of Deputies (known as Oficina C) presented six new scientific evidence reports before Congress, kicking off the second edition of the pairing scheme, which aims to facilitate knowledge sharing between the legislative branch and the scientific community.
Round table on scientific knowledge in the legislative power
The presentation event brought together representatives from the major Spanish scientific, technological, and innovation institutions, research professionals, and collaborators in gathering scientific evidence for the reports, as well as other agents from our country's and Europe's R&D&I systems. During her speech, Imma Aguilar, the general director of FECYT, emphasised the role of Oficina C as a facilitator of dialogue between the scientific community and deputies: "A legislature open to scientific evidence can make better public policies, and better face social challenges, and science capable of understanding the needs of public policies can also offer better solutions."
Furthermore, the FECYT General Director stated that, while the legislature has always received scientific evidence through other channels, Oficina C establishes a transparent, public, professionalised evidence-gathering service for all parliamentary groups, with a constantly evaluated and evolving methodology.
From February 26 to 28, nine scientists chosen from more than 275 applicants will share their expertise with chamber deputies for the second time in Spain and as is typical in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the European Parliament.
The selected research personnel hold doctorates and work at various stages of their scientific careers in Spain's public or university science sectors.
During the three days of work, research and parliamentary professionals will collaborate on various training sessions on scientific advice and closed-door meetings where they can discuss and exchange perspectives on the contents of the six reports published in January.
During the presentation day, six new scientific evidence reports that contextualise and summarise transdisciplinary scientific knowledge on six sociopolitical subjects commissioned by the Congress Table were also presented in the Congress of Deputies' Constitutional Room:
- Ageing and well-being
- Air quality: advances and best practices
- Advances in neuroscience: applications and ethical implications
- Forest fires and burned areas restoration
- Advances in neurodegenerative diseases
- Disinformation in the digital age
The reports are licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 and are available on this website and the Congress of Deputies, adding to those already published on Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and health, Advances in cancer treatment, and Green hydrogen as fuel.
Oficina C interviewed 121 people from the national and international expert, scientific, and research community and consulted more than 2,000 bibliographic references. These reports are created using the Method C, which may be consulted here.