How do science and technology help to address societal problems? A practical typology of contributions

Governments, corporations, and nonprofits worldwide spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year on research and development intended to help address societal problems such as wealth inequity, public health, and climate change. But not all kinds of research are equally suited to help address each problem, and much research is not scoped or oriented to achieve needed contributions. Research strategy could benefit from a more granular and detailed understanding of the different contributions that research and development can make to the address of societal problems; of when each type of contribution is needed; and of how to identify research projects with the potential to achieve each contribution. I outline three different scientific activities—problem description and attribution, option assessment and evaluation, and option identification and development—and the different contributions they can make to societal problems exhibiting value consensus and value dissensus. I also provide two “catechisms” intended to help identify when each contribution is needed and what kinds of research are most likely to achieve each. I deploy this framework to the problem of “scientific choice,” to which it is intended to contribute, and suggest fruitful lines of research on societal allocation of scientific and innovative effort.