Science and Society

Foresight is the leading think tank and public interest institute on nanotechnology. Founded in 1986, Foresight was the first organization to educate society about the benefits and risks of nanotechnology. At that time, nanotechnology was a little-known concept. Today, with the basic framework of public understanding in place, we are refocusing our efforts on guiding nanotechnology research, public policy and education to address the critical challenges facing humanity. Foresights new mission is to ensure the beneficial implementation of nanotechnology. Foresight is accomplishing this by providing balanced, accurate and timely information to help society understand and utilize nanotechnology through public policy activities, publications, guidelines, networking events, tutorials, conferences, roadmaps and prizes.

The NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks is Northeastern University’s center for Digital Humanities and Computational Social Science.

The Ancient World Mapping Center is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Center promotes cartography, historical geography, and geographic information science as essential disciplines within the field of ancient studies through innovative and collaborative research, teaching, and community outreach activities.

The Institute of Human Development seeks to advance understanding of human development through pioneering contributions to developmental science. The broader mission is to advance knowledge that informs policies and practices — in ways that lead to improvements in the lives of infants, children, adolescents, their families, communities, and society.

The Institute's vision of developmental science is integrative and transdisciplinary. It incorporates work from several disciplines — including developmental psychology, education, science of learning, developmental neuroscience, developmental biology, genetics/epigenetics, and computational modeling of learning processes — that investigate the processes that underpin learning and development.

Centered at UC Berkeley, CITRIS incubates research on problems that have a major impact on the economy, quality of life, and future success of California: conserving energy; education; saving lives, property, and productivity in the wake of disasters; boosting transportation efficiency; advancing diagnosis and treatment of disease; and expanding business growth through much richer personalized information services. Solutions to many of these problems have a common IT feature: at their core they depend on highly-distributed, reliable, and secure information systems that can evolve and adapt to radical changes in their environment, delivering information services that adapt to the people and organizations that need them. It is this feature that is at the heart of the initial research agenda for CITRIS.

The mission of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

The question is no longer whether global warming is upon us

The Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) is a community of natural and social scientists working together to improve the quality of our environment. The mission of ESPM is to advance our knowledge and understanding of natural resource systems in order to develop innovative solutions to complex environmental challenges. Approaching this goal through multidisciplinary research, teaching, and extension, the department focuses on ecosystem stewardship; environmental governance; global change; organisms and biodiversity; and science, technology and environment.

The Earth

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) conducts research and development on technology, operations and the environment for the global electric power sector. EPRI, a non-profit organization, brings together its members, the institute

The GENI Initiative focuses on linking renewable energy resources around the world using international electricity transmission. Research shows that the premier global strategy is the interconnection of electric power networks between regions and continents into a global energy grid, with an emphasis on tapping abundant renewable energy resources

The CGIAR is a strategic alliance of members, partners and international agricultural centers that mobilizes science to benefit the poor. Our mission is to achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through scientific research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, policy, and environment

The American Cancer Society is a nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service. The goal of the American Cancer Society (ACS) is to prevent cancer, save lives, and diminish suffering from cancer.

The Buckminster Fuller Institute is dedicated to accelerating the development and deployment of solutions which radically advance human well being and the health of our planet's ecosystems. We aim to deeply influence the ascendance of a new generation of design-science pioneers who are leading the creation of an abundant and restorative world economy that benefits all humanity. The Buckminster Fuller Institute is a non-profit organization founded in 1983 and inspired by the ideas and discoveries pioneered by the late R. Buckminster Fuller. BFI's constituency crosses disciplinary boundaries and includes people working in the fields of art, architecture, design, education, engineering, information technology, economics, the environment, mathematics, planning, science, and systems theory.

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is an independent nonprofit research group. We work with organizations of all kinds to help them make better, more informed decisions about the future. We provide the foresight to create insights that lead to action. We bring a combination of tools, methodologies, and a deep understanding of emerging trends and discontinuities to our work with companies, foundations, and government agencies. We take an explicitly global approach to strategic planning, linking macro trends to local issues.

The Social and Information Sciences Laboratory - SISL - studies how markets and other social systems aggregate large amounts of information that is widely distributed. Researchers in SISL are also working to design new and improved markets, network protocols, sensor systems, and political processes. One of the novel aspects of SISL research concerns understanding how humans interact with technology and what that implies about the design of the technology. Since such systems involve both human behavior and technology, SISL brings together researchers from the social sciences, engineering, and applied and computational mathematics.

The National Council for Science and the Environment is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the scientific basis for environmental decision-making. We envision a society where environmental decisions by everyone are based on an accurate understanding of the underlying science, its meaning and limitations, and the potential consequences of their action or inaction.

The Baker Institute Science and Technology Policy Program is designed to bring attention to and bridge the gap between science and public policy. The mission of the Science and Technology Policy Program is to address a broad range of policy issues which affect scientists and their research. Our goal is to have both scientists and policy makers work together to inform each other on important issues. By doing so, public policy will more accurately reflect current scientific research and be more consistent with scientific consensus. It will also give an opportunity for scientists to learn from the general public and respond to their concerns.

The Earth Institute at Columbia University brings together talent from throughout the University to address complex issues facing the planet and its inhabitants, with particular focus on sustainable development and the need of the world's poor. Under the direction of international economist Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Earth Institute supports pioneering projects in the biological, engineering, social, and health sciences, while actively encouraging interdisciplinary projects--often combining natural and social sciences--in pursuit of solutions to real world problems.

The Center is a response to an increased demand by public and private decision makers for