Coronavirus outbreak
Coronavirus outbreak

Improving Interdisciplinary Knowledge Integration in Public Health Crisis Management

This project examines the role of the sciences in policy advice during the COVID-19 crisis. We pay special attention to the (lack of) interplay between biomedical and social scientific expertise in pandemic management in Europe.
Duration
2021 until 2023
Project member(s)
Dr S. Lohse (Simon) , Karim Bschir (St. Gallen, Switzerland) , Stefano Canali (Milan, Italy) , Jörn Knobloch (Lübeck, Germany)
Project type
Research
Organisation
Institute for Science in Society

Using methods from political science and philosophy of science, we pursue three main goals:

  1. A detailed description and assessment of the role of the social and life sciences in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  2. An analysis of the differences in epistemic practices of the life and social sciences and the challenges for interdisciplinary knowledge integration in this context.
  3. The development of starting points for improving interdisciplinary knowledge integration in evidence-based policy-making, especially in public health policy.

The expected project outcomes are a deeper understanding of political and epistemological challenges for interdisciplinary knowledge integration and recommendations for expanding epistemic pluralism in the context of policy advice.

News

Person wearing a safety mask

Project Wrap-Up Improving Interdisciplinary Knowledge Integration in Public Health Crisis Management

Research news item

Simon Lohse recently completed a project on policy advice during the COVID-19 crisis. His team and collaborators developed ideas to improve evidence-based (public health) policy.

Results

Bschir, K. & Lohse, S. 2023 “Taking Pluralism Seriously: A New Perspective on Evidence-Based Policy”. Science & Public Policy. doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scad074

Bschir, K., Knobloch, J. & Lohse, S. 2023. “Post-COVID-19: Auf dem Weg zu einem integrativen Modell der wissensbasierten Politikberatung [Post-COVID-19: Towards an integrative model of knowledge-based policy advice]”. In: Wissensproduktion und Wissenstransfer in Zeiten der Pandemie [Knowledge production and transfer in times of pandemic], ed. R. Hauswald & P. Schmechtig. Alber: 81-116.

Bschir, K. & Lohse, S. 2022. “Pandemics, Policy, and Pluralism. A Feyerabend-inspired Perspective on COVID-19”. Synthese 200, 441. doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03923-4

Lohse, S. & Canali, S. 2021. “Follow the Science? On the (Marginal) Role of the Social Sciences in the COVID-19 pandemic”. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (99). doi.org/10.1007/s13194-021-00416-y

Lohse, S., & Bschir, K. (2020). The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case for Epistemic Pluralism in Public Health Policy. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 42(4), 58. doi.org/0.1007/s40656-020-00353-8

Funding

Volkswagen Foundation

Partners

University of Lübeck, Radboud University, Politecnico di Milano, University St. Gallen

Contact information

Contact