With the fervor of both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions wrapping up last week, the November election has been cast to the forefront in many people’s minds. And while both parties have brought up very relevant issues, many politicians have paid little attention to the policy interests of the scientific community.
Hoping to spark candidate discussion and debate about the most important science policy questions, ScienceDebate.org, supported by Scientific American and more than a dozen scientific societies, crowd-sourced the most important science-related questions for politicians, narrowing the input of thousands of scientists, engineers and other concerned citizens to just 14 relevant issues. These questions were sent to President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, presidential candidates for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.
The candidates recently responded to the call, and you can learn about their positions on everything from innovation and the economy to protecting natural resources to maintaining research funding by visiting ScienceDebate.org.
For more information about the Republican and Democratic Party platforms as they relate to science policy, review the following articles from ScienceInsider:
Republican Party Platform Has a Lot to Say About Science
Democratic Party Platform Mostly Looks Back on Science
