RAPID: Translating Basic Research Into Actionable Guidance Through the Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN)

Decision-makers at the state, national and local level are facing a range of complex issues as they lead the COVID-19 recovery efforts in their communities. These issues include increased unemployment, disruption of schools and education, unhealthy practices, increased domestic violence and many other critical problems affecting the well-being of virtually every person in the U.S. In order to make informed decisions on how to mitigate these issues, decision-makers need rapid access to the best possible evidence and information. That evidence and information can be provided by experts in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences through the newly formed Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN). SEAN will include researchers from leading social and behavioral science institutions and will be guided by an executive committee that will coordinate with the National Academies? Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats.

SEAN is a multi-faceted effort and will include a number of organizations collaborating together while each managing different components. The purpose of this project is to create and manage the SEAN component responsible for rapidly translating the wealth of scholarly research, data and other materials provided by social, behavioral and economic science experts into actionable guidance that can be used immediately by decision-makers, businesses and other community leaders. The translation component of SEAN will be based at the Federation for American Scientists and will be home to consultants who are skilled at translating scholarly research and data into plain-language guidance that can be applied to current real-world events. Using the model of ?Rapid Expert Consultations,? SEAN will provide expert guidance on a range of issues to decision-makers, while also making the same guidance available to the general public. We expect SEAN to greatly expand the use of ?Rapid Expert Consultations? beyond medicine and virology into a broad range of subjects, such as how to best use remote-learning technology to teach children, how to bolster our supply chains and small businesses, how to address social isolation and domestic violence and many other public issues facing our communities now and into the future.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.