The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) operates primarily through its convening power, bringing together actors inside and outside of government to conceptualize and develop initiatives for the White House and federal agencies. Given recent executive actions intended to center science and equity in the work of the current administration, OSTP is now charged with carrying out broad efforts toward “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Throughout the Federal Government,” and “Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking,” respectively. To support this work, Ciocca Eller will spend 15 months at OSTP and focus initially on four streams of work, including 1) use of research evidence, including building relationships between federal agencies and external researchers, building relationships between research and policy staff within agencies, and enhancing the flow of social science evidence in government; 2) STEM excellence and equity, including establishing baselines for STEM equity in education and careers, identifying levers to improve equity, and developing systems of evidence-building and accountability; 3) unemployment insurance, in partnership with the Department of Labor, focused on building a data infrastructure to connect federal and state data systems; and 4) responding to misinformation, as part of OSTP’s broader agenda to restore trust in science, in collaboration with the Council of Economic Advisors and the Domestic Policy Council.
This grant will support Ciocca Eller’s work advancing equity and scientific integrity at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy through a cross-agency Equitable Data Working Group and other means.
