Giving Compass' Take:

• Tom Kalil shares how government agencies providing social services can make a bigger impact when they have a scientific research arm to help to create and test new practices.

• How can philanthropy help agencies expand their horizons through research? What barriers do these agencies face in creating new programs? 

• Learn about the importance of putting rigorous evidence at the center of policymaking


idea42’s Josh Wright recently caught up with Tom Kalil, Chief Innovation Officer of Schmidt Futures, and former Deputy Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.  One of the ideas that Tom is exploring is that science and technology can and should be playing a larger role in addressing societal challenges, particularly those challenges related to economic and social mobility.

How did you get interested in the role that science and technology can play in addressing societal challenges?

I had an opportunity to work for two Presidents (President Clinton and President Obama) for 16 years.  One of my jobs was to design and launch national science and technology initiatives that involved multiple agencies, like President Clinton’s nanotechnology initiative or President Obama’s BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative.

One of the things that I noticed over time is that some agencies, like DARPA, had the ability to set really ambitious goals and mobilize top researchers and entrepreneurs to meet them, while other agencies, like the Department of Labor, did not.  The entire Department of Defense has a research budget of $66 billion, whereas the Department of Labor has a research budget of $4 million.

This huge difference in capacity shapes what agencies can do in important ways.  For example, the Department of Defense was able to launch a program to reduce the time required for new Navy recruits to gain a technical skill from years to months, harnessing recent advances in AI.  This is not something that the Department of Labor would have the ability to conceive of, let alone fund.

It occurred to me – what if the agencies that are responsible for promoting economic and social mobility (e.g. Labor, Education, HUD, the human services components of HHS) had a research arm like DARPA?  What goals would it set?  What research projects might it support?

Read the full interview with Tom Kalil about science for societal challenges by Josh Wright at ideas42.