Creating a debate around science and democracy requires involving citizens

Aude Lapprand is the general delegate of the Sciences Citoyennes Foundation, a French non-profit organisation that leads a reflection about the responsibility of researchers and democracy in science. Since 2002, the institution has been working at encouraging the democratisation and civil appropriation of science at the service of the common good. Their main approach involves questioning the role of science and technology in building our society.

Manifesto for responsible research

In 2015, the Sciences Citoyennes Foundation has published a manifesto with the aim to rebuild the lost confidence between science and society. This manifesto will be presented by the Sciences Citoyennes Foundation at the 7th Living Knowledge conference to be held in Dublin, Ireland, between 22nd and 24th of June 2016. “What we mainly want with this manifesto is to create a debate, especially amongst researchers and citizens,” says Lapprand. “I think that in this manifesto we are quite aware that we presented some non-consensual positions, especially on some myths generated by some researchers like freedom of research,” she adds.

Citizen conventions

Among the proposed solutions to improve democracy in science and increased responsibility of scientists, Lapprand introduces the concept of citizen convention. “Citizen convention or citizen conferences allow the reflection of 15 citizens randomly chosen within the population, with no [conflict of interest], with no link with the specific topics that are concerned [about],” she explains. Those 15 citizens, intensively trained by specialists, “will be able to elaborate recommendations concerning the topics [of interest],” she adds.

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Video editing and cover text Charline Pierre and Lena Kim.

Interview by Sabine Louët, EuroScientist Editor.

Featured image credit: Aude Lapprand

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Sabine Louët

Former editor at EuroScientist

Sabine has a passion for all things related to European research. A physicist by training, she has been covering stories in life science, the physical sciences, technology, policy and innovation for the past 20 years. She was previously the news editor at Nature Biotechnology. She was also involved in the creation of AlphaGalileo. She is the Founder of SciencePOD translating complex science and tech concepts into high-quality articles written in simple language.

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