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+Policy Fellow Research Highlight: Suqin Ge

+Policy Network

ANNOUNCEMENTS & UPCOMING EVENTS

READ THE +POLICY NETWORK'S ANNUAL FALL MEET AND GREET RECAP STORY 

On Tuesday, September 10, 2024, the +Policy Network hosted its fourth annual fall mixer. Faculty and graduate students from around the university gathered and connected over research and +Policy Network opportunities. Read the full story here

2024 FAIR PLASTICS INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP REPORT NOW AVAILABLE

The Fair Plastics workshop, held on March 15th, brought together experts from industry, government, academia, and community groups to explore the challenges and strategies for decarbonizing ethylene production. Industry participants focused on technical solutions and regulatory support, while researchers highlighted additional carbon contributors and economic challenges. Community groups called for a holistic approach and greater accountability to address environmental justice. The workshop emphasized the importance of collaboration across technical, social, and policy areas to achieve sustainable and fair decarbonization. Read the report here

What is the +Policy Network?

 

The +Policy Network, formerly the Policy Destination Area, is a cross-university, interdisciplinary group that aims to raise the visibility of policy and policy-related research and practice across the University. We are dedicated to making research more "translation-ready" by helping faculty and graduate students consider policy considerations even at the start of the research enterprise (hence, the "+ Policy"). Since fall 2021, we are funded by and operate under the auspices of the Institute of Society, Culture and Environment (ISCE)

Building capacity for policy research and development that connects STEM disciplines with the social sciences and humanities sets us apart from the "policy school" approach by leveraging our strengths in policy-related theoretical and methodological innovation and sophistication and the deliberate integration of policy considerations throughout the university, so as to advance the human condition in a just and equitable manner.

We view policy broadly as making decisions with wide-ranging or heightened impact under conditions of complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty. Under such frequently volatile and poorly understood circumstances, “policy” encompasses more than statutes, regulations, and court decisions, often producing outcomes with major social, economic, and environmental ramifications.

We work toward achieving our aims through several interlocked strategies and that also reflect the mission of our land grant University. These include concentration of focal areas that are in turn reflected in our research, graduate certificate program, or curriculum, and engagement. Specific initiatives or programs are listed below.

      

Focal Areas

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    Energy & Environmental Policy

    Policies debated and made now affect generations to come. Perhaps in few areas is this more true than for energy and environmental policies - which are national, but also international, state and local - making them especially complex.

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    Health Policy

    We view health policy as an ever-evolving, interdisciplinary field that traverses many disciplines including those traditionally within public health and medicine, as well as across liberal arts, architecture and planning, engineering, and others.

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    Technology Policy

    We are poised to enter perhaps the most consequential decade in the history of humankind. The potential of innovative technologies for good or ill, unfolding within an acceleratingly interconnected yet diverging world that is undergoing dramatic climate and social changes, means that governance and policy decisions made today have outsized ramifications across every sphere of future human activity.