Providing space and time for mutual learning and compromise The team built space and time into the program planning process in which they could share, learn and engage on a personal, professional and academic level, and that process was re-created for the Fellows to experience. The Fellows’ space and time took place largely during the week spent at Asilomar, a Pacific Coast conference center set in the dunes south of Silicon Valley. The Washington retreat earlier in the year was a rapid-fire occasion to learn and meet most of the major players in the American political and regulatory scene around the life sciences. Asilomar, by contrast, was an opportunity to reflect and to generate ideas and relationships. The week was in sharp contrast to the Asilomar genetic engineering conference at the same site in the 1970s, which solidified a
OUTCOMES: PROGRAM REFLECTIONS | SAM WEISS EVANS
“science-first, society-second” view of innovation. This week focused on how our knowledge and the type of society we want to live in are inextricably interconnected. As each Fellow fleshed out an action plan, we encouraged everyone to consider how his or her own expertise might be employed to clarify, modify or abandon the plan. We encouraged thinking especially around questions like “Who will be harmed by this work and how might we address those harms in a fair way?” and “What assumptions are we making about our idea and the society and environment it will live in?” While each Fellow undertook active reflection in a different way and to differing degrees, the team set a clear expectation and norm for this practice that distinguished the experience from other settings. LEAP is an experiment in restructuring deep-seated ways of governing and moving from an initial idea to a project that resonates with society. In a year’s work with a busload of Fellows, we were not expecting to change the policies, academic incentives or industry structure of the life sciences. Instead, we laid seeds in the human capital of this system. I believe these seeds will grow and flourish if programs like LEAP continue to strengthen our muscles to question why we innovate the way we do, and how we might do so more responsibly. LEAP has been an important step in building capacity for active reflection, and I look forward to playing a part in the initiatives it has fostered.
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