If it’s difficult but tractable, then liasing with existing policymakers is good, as is getting practice in lobbying and policymaking.
I also feel like science and tech lobbying is a bit neglected, and could be popular with the public and with great scientists, while giving us an opportunity to talk to relevant policymakers about risk-mitigating interventions.
Yes, although engaging with existing policymakers too soon is a good way to lose credibility. There is definitely more room to talk to friendly policy experts though!
I’m not sure that doing lobbying ‘just for practice’ is a good idea. It would be fairly easy to accidentally lobby for something bad, and equally the reputational consequences of lobbying can be complicated if you don’t know an area.
What do you mean by science/tech lobbying? Lobbying for what?
Genetal science stuff like research funding, improved research infrastructure, better research regulation, better patent law, better education, all the while promoting public understanding of science. All of this could be a good platform to build on even if some of these areas are somewhat crowded, reducing immediate impact.
I think it’s not so much that it’s crowded as that it’s often unclear what the actual thing you’d lobby for is: is more research funding better research funding? Maybe. What exactly would better patent law be? Better education? These are all things where it is easy to come to views, and even to be quite confident about them, but where the realities are often much more complicated than they seem.
I don’t mean that in a nihilistic way—I’m currently working on building a much more informed view of safe biological research funding in order to lobby for a specific policy—it’s just that there’s quite a lot of work to be done to be sure something is good before you advocate for it.
If it’s difficult but tractable, then liasing with existing policymakers is good, as is getting practice in lobbying and policymaking.
I also feel like science and tech lobbying is a bit neglected, and could be popular with the public and with great scientists, while giving us an opportunity to talk to relevant policymakers about risk-mitigating interventions.
Yes, although engaging with existing policymakers too soon is a good way to lose credibility. There is definitely more room to talk to friendly policy experts though!
I’m not sure that doing lobbying ‘just for practice’ is a good idea. It would be fairly easy to accidentally lobby for something bad, and equally the reputational consequences of lobbying can be complicated if you don’t know an area.
What do you mean by science/tech lobbying? Lobbying for what?
Genetal science stuff like research funding, improved research infrastructure, better research regulation, better patent law, better education, all the while promoting public understanding of science. All of this could be a good platform to build on even if some of these areas are somewhat crowded, reducing immediate impact.
I think it’s not so much that it’s crowded as that it’s often unclear what the actual thing you’d lobby for is: is more research funding better research funding? Maybe. What exactly would better patent law be? Better education? These are all things where it is easy to come to views, and even to be quite confident about them, but where the realities are often much more complicated than they seem.
I don’t mean that in a nihilistic way—I’m currently working on building a much more informed view of safe biological research funding in order to lobby for a specific policy—it’s just that there’s quite a lot of work to be done to be sure something is good before you advocate for it.