Hello, my name is Tom Pollard
and I'm a professor at Yale University.
I'd like to share with you in a few minutes
my belief of why biologists must
be good advocates of the science that they do.
I'm sure you're all aware, at least
that in principle, where the funds
come from for our research.
Some of it comes from private organizations,
but the vast amount of money
that supports biological research comes from
the National Institutes of Health,
the National Science Foundation,
and other agencies of the federal government.
So the answer to the first question
is that the federal government is supporting
most of our research, for which we
are all grateful.
So, who advocates for federal funds?
And you have to appreciate that
virtually everyone who has any
sort of organization in the United States
is impacted in some way by federal funds.
So consider the kinds of people
who would be considered about the legislative process
which I just described.
They include oil companies, it includes banks,
it includes insurance companies, it includes
educators, it includes medical schools,
it includes doctors, it includes people
who are in favor or against guns,
it includes virtually every organized group
in the country.
And all of them are looking out for themselves.
And we have to look out for ourselves
as well, because we're competing
with all of them for a limited amount
of federal funds.
So, who advocates for biomedical research?
Well historically, this has been the
provence of two different kinds of organizations.
On one side, we've had the voluntary health
organizations, such as the American Cancer Society,
the Juvenile Diabetes Society, which have
patients and their families who are concerned
about a particular disease.
And they bring their cause to
the federal government and argue in favor
for funding for those specific diseases,
and they are great allies for us.
Because they care passionately about
medical research. Another group
that advocates for biomedical research
are the organizations that represent the deans
of the medical schools and the presidents of
research universities. The Association of American
Universities and the American Association
of Medical Colleges.
And traditionally, they've had our best interests
in mind. But in the late 1980s, the
bench scientist became concerned about the
message that the government was receiving
about the priorities for the biomedical research
community. And a group of us scientists
independently organized a third
branch of advocacy for biomedical
research. And that's what I'd like to tell you a little about now.
The problem was, at that time
and extend to today, the vast majority of
biomedical researchers are completely
on the sidelines when it comes to
advocating for our own needs,
that is the funds to support our very worthy work.
And this is very disturbing to me because
we have a very virtuous cause compared
to many of the other causes that are advocated
for by other groups in the country.
And it's also disturbing to me because we
have a very highly educated articulate group
of people who are vitally dependent
on federal funding to do their work.
Work that benefits not only every person
in the country and in the world,
but also benefits greatly the economy of
the United States.
So we have a virtuous cause and articulate
group of advocates, and yet most
biomedical scientists have been on the sidelines.
So, how can you help?
I've got a few suggestions here,
and the first one is that you join
a professional society that has an
advocacy program.
This will provide you a built-in
environment which you can be successful
as an advocate.
Many, but not all, of the basic science
and clinical research societies do have
advocacy efforts. It's relatively new, it's all started
in the last 25 years. So check and see
whether the society that you're interested in
joining does have an advocacy program.
Secondly, join your society's advocacy grassroots network.
Many, but not all, societies have thousands
up to thousands of their members connected
by email and other means to
allow the members to stay informed about
issues in Washington, and to react
for requests for help. Help in the form
of telephone calls to elected officials
or letters to elected officials,
so join your society's advocacy network
and help out.
Then, you can do more. You can actually
volunteer to help your society with
advocacy. No society has too many
people to volunteering to help out
with advocacy, so you're volunteering
will be very welcome.
Another thing you could do is to visit
your elected officials at home, in your
congressional district or in Washington DC.
And many, but not all, scientific societies
have organized Capitol Hill days where
you can get some help visiting
members of Congress. People who've done this
find this very energizing and usually return
home much better advocates than they
were before they put on the Capitol Hill day.
And we have many examples around the country
where scientists have returned to their home
institution and organized very effective local
advocacy efforts.
A final suggestion here is to let your
elected officials know what happens after
you've had your grant reviewed.
This is an idea from Larry Goldstein and
San Diego. I think that it's a brilliant idea
and it's rarely done, but it should be very effective
if we can get it used more broadly.
The idea is, if you get good news,
that your grant's been funded, you should write
your representative and your two Senators
from your state and say "Thank you
for helping appropriate the funds
that will allow me to do research
that will benefit mankind and will stimulate
the economy and our city and our state."
Equally important would be a good idea to write your
representative and your two U.S. Senators if
your grant is not funded, and to let them know
how disappointed you are that you will not be
receiving support from the federal government
and how this might set back your
research, or how it might result in you having to layoff
people in your lab, how it will reduce your ability
to purchase goods and services in the city
and the state, and that therefore will have a negative
economic impact on the state.
I think that one of the main problems that
a lot of the people who represent us in Congress
don't actually know what's going on in their own district
and how much we all depend on
the federal government for funding. In many
cities, for example, let's say Tucson, Arizona,
or New Haven, Connecticut, the number one employer
in these cities is in fact a university
with a large biomedical research operation.
Now, one of the things that people
are concerned about is that they feel, "Well gosh.
I just don't have the stature to go talk to
somebody important, like a member of Congress."
But I'm afraid you've got it exactly backwards.
Members of Congress are very poorly educated
in the sciences as things go, and what
you'll discover is, if you go to visit your
member of Congress, and say, "I'm a scientist.
I'm doing research in cellular molecular biology."
About the first thing they'll do is apologize for the fact
that they last took a science course when they
were in high school, and probably didn't do too
well at it. And they might try to make a joke out of this
and say because they did so poorly
in science that they decided to be a politician instead.
So, you've got the upper hand when you go to
visit your member of Congress. They're going to admire
the fact that you're smart enough and really educated
enough to be a scientist, and they will
listen to what you have to say.
They need to hear from you.
You might think that just one or two letters
wouldn't make a difference, but actually
that very small number of letters will be registered
as a concern on the part of constituents.
And if you could possibly generate 20-30 letters
from your congressional district,
that would be considered a huge amount of
concern on the part of constituents
about an issue, in this case, federal
funding for biomedical research.
So, beyond participating in your society's advocacy
program, there are actually some other things
that you could do. One is to vote
for and support political candidates
who value science. It's a perfectly
legal and a responsibility of all
of us to participate in electoral
politics. And that is to support candidates
who we favor and you could do this by
providing campaign funds for them.
It costs $1,000,000 to get elected to the House
of Representatives, and $10,000,000 to get
elected to the Senate. So they are always
looking for financial support.
And so, you should get to know your
elected officials and contribute to their
political campaigns. And let them know you're
a contributor when you see them.
I even contribute to the political campaigns
of members of Congress who
do not live in the state of Connecticut.
Those particular individuals who are particularly
important for their advocacy and are championing
the NIH and other science agencies.
Second thing you could do would be
to share your science in your community.
Many communities have science cafes
that will volunteer to give a talk at your local
science cafe. If by chance you know somebody
who's in a service club like a Lion's
or Rotary, you could tell them that you'd be willing to come
and give a talk about your research.
Reach out to your church groups and others in your
community. Another thing you could do
is to invite elected officials to visit
your laboratory. They'll consider this to be a treat.
Although, having given you this advice,
I must give you a word of caution, too.
You need to coordinate this activity with your government
affairs people at your university.
Because they are actively engaged
with interfacing with politicians
and they'll want to know that you've done this,
and to help coordinate the visit.
And finally, if you're really keen about
this, you might consider a career in public
policy. Some of us, like myself,
had a little side career in public policy
as we've been pursuing our academic
careers. And that's certainly one way to
do it, and we could certainly use more
help and more leadership in the advocacy community.
But others have decided they want to make
this a full-time career. And for example,
the American Association for the Advancement
of Sciences has a beautiful fellowship program
that allows scientists to spend a couple of
years in Washington DC, either working on Capitol Hill
or one of the agencies, to learn about how government
works and to become a member of
the community. So Washington, thanks
to the AAAS, is now heavily populated
with people who used to be bench scientists
who've transitioned into careers in
the federal government through their
fellowship programs. I recommend that to you
highly. If you want to learn more
about what I've just said, I wrote an article
for Cell that appeared in 2012.
Here's the reference and
I provide a lot more details
and links so you can hook up with
groups in the community in helping scientists
be good advocates.
Please help out. Thank you.
