Ohio State Battelle Center Receives PIT-UN Funding for New Student Fellows

The PIT-UN Network Challenge awarded $3.61 million this year to 31 grantees to fund and support critical research, field building, and the development of a career pipeline for public interest technologists.

Our center has partnered with Cleveland State University and Case Western University to train and place Ohio Public Interest Fellows in state government to grow the capacity of Ohio’s public sector and the future workforce to integrate scientific-technical insight into policy making.

The differences in culture, process, and outcomes between the arenas of science and policy have created a long-standing divide between the two. These two enterprises can benefit from better connectivity, including people who have a deeper understanding of both the processes and requirements of policy and the types of data and stories that science can elaborate.

This need is exemplified by the recent decisions we have seen made at local and state levels that often defy the facts provided by scientists with regards the pandemic

This program will allow five graduate students drawn from scientific-technical academic backgrounds the opportunity to gain firsthand experience in the ways science can be used to inform policy, policy can fund and support the sciences and allowing students to become advocates of clear communication between these two disciplines. Students will be assessed on their understanding of good governance, policy-formulation, and science communication practices.

This program aims to increase students’, general public’s and public officials’ understanding of the field of public interest technology, its goals and career paths. We endeavor to grow lasting ‘connective tissue’ between academia and state government and increase Ohio’s capacity to integrate scientific-technical insight into policymaking.

The Ohio Public Interest Fellows program continues Ohio State Battelle Center’s mission to connect policy makers with scientists and engineers to create productive dialogues that allow our decision makers to understand highly technical information, anticipate challenges and innovate in the public interest.

In addition, Ohio State’s Glenn College, where Battelle Center resides, is a significant player in professional development and research that support state government, especially with its SOLI capacity-building program. The proposed Fellows program expands upon Glenn College’s mission: creating a bridge between Ohio state government and academic translators of complex scientific-technical information in the public interest.