science experts consulting

science experts consulting

The Role of Science Experts in Consulting: A Comprehensive Analysis

1. Introduction to Science Experts in Consulting

The increasing complexity of society, as well as the “educatedness effect” of lay clients and the speed of the development of some scientific fields of knowledge, lead to the need for use of experts (also known as “advisory” experts) and witnesses in a lot of typical client-expert interactive legal environments: criminal trials (forensic experts), inquiries (scientific and technical expertise), public hearings before public boards (city and regional planning applications), arbitration (technical consulting), mediations, environmental hearings, and not less other legal activities such as business law dealing with patents, innovation law, competences and structure of the universities, research policy, contract and regulatory advice to the public entities.

Experts can be characterized as professionals with a high level of specialized knowledge in a particular area or well recognized authority in the field. The range of the expertise and forms, as well as ways of the actors’ interactions is very wide: as much civil or compliance consultations (on civil contracting, responsibility and damage, taxation, patents, factoring), family consultations, than corporate governance consultations, investigation consultations (e.g., scientific accusations), invention consultations, certifications (e.g., compliance with the laws of the European Union on organic production, with the “Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources”), competition and consumer law consultations (econometrics of damages), etc. The multiple applications of the expertise in consistent phenomenon, to which lawyers are widely confronted namely in their role of consultant.

2. The Benefits of Utilizing Science Experts in Consulting Projects

The implementation of expert knowledge is necessary in order to rationalize the decisions of planners, management, or politics and to legitimize them in case of doubts. Scientific knowledge from a variety of scientific disciplines is therefore an important potential tool for consultants when they approach various consulting objectives. Upon first sight, the involvement of science experts appears to be a major success factor in consulting. Over the last few decades, in fact, many publications advocate and support the involvement of science experts in specific consulting topics, such as ecosystem management, law policy enforcement, reasonable solutions or sustainable development and innovation. Also, research considers the provided support from science experts very important and even indicates that the absence of the science expert’s knowledge leads to bad or even unacceptable results.

However, most of these arguments are based on single or few specific examples or incidents, and as the devil lies in the details, these analyses do not elucidate how and why science experts add value or when should or should not be worked with. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, there is little comprehensive research on the role of science experts in consulting projects. In response to the call to understand more about how science experts add value, we thus propose that the overall research question that aims to advance our understanding of the science expert’s role in consulting is: What is the value of science experts for given science problems in consulting projects?

3. Challenges and Limitations Faced by Science Experts in Consulting

3 – Challenges and Limitations Faced by Science Experts in Consulting

In consulting, science experts might encounter a variety of challenges that hamper their ability to effectively and efficiently work with their clients. Clinician-managers know that socialization within management communities is very effective, enhancing mutual understanding and communication. Unfortunately, science experts witness the obstacles placed by different socializations within the various groups that they are called upon to resolve. Generally, experts from different scientific disciplines, e.g., economic, organizational, and technical fields, lack a common language. This situation is often a major obstacle to effective work in an interdisciplinary team, particularly at the beginning when problem descriptions are essential and depend on social factors. It is difficult to define the problem effectively without an immediate understanding of the art of the feasible.

Apart from the general limitation of scientific thinking, many additional problems result in the field, partially because consulting work does not build on the one idealized problem-solving scheme based on the positivistic philosophy of science. An associated challenge arises from the time-limited success of scientific laws and calculations. DSI’s discover the constantly changing implementation situations in ongoing management processes. Even if overall goals like customer satisfaction remain the same, the observed training data might change through customer responses to totally different market forces. These include cycles, new trends, suddenly influential customer groups, or even intentional and unintentional managerial errors that differ from the training data which, in any case, are unlikely to have been seen by the consultant. Data, on which statistical models rely, sometimes do not exist because current phenomena depend on complex, partly hidden non-time series files. Regulatory topics helpful for management consulting techniques are emotional intelligence, professionals’ dispositions, professional ethics, and professional value among others.

4. Best Practices and Strategies for Effective Science Expert Consulting

Preparing for effective testimony Your effectiveness as a science expert will depend on your ability to build compelling narratives using sound, credible data. Gather as much information as possible regarding the legal issues so that you can provide relevant material and testimony. You should be able to summarize your credentials, training, and experience as efficiently as possible. Preparing these basic materials in advance will make the cross-examination smoother. Both direct testimony and depositions must be impeccable. Preparing for cross-examination is the most important aspect of preparation. Encounter the worst that can happen at trial and practice it during your deposition. The questions posed by the “rehearsing attorney” have to be ones that expose potential faults in scientific interpretation, methodology, or application. Look for weak spots and seal them off. You gain credibility by handling tough and potentially embarrassing questions up front.

Understanding the client and associate attorney’s needs Your role is to tailor your assistance, insights, and directions to your client’s needs for the best possible outcome. Associate attorneys will seek your technical or scientific expertise for case background, general scientific or technical critique or analysis, testimony, or cross- and direct-examination assistance. They may need to decide whether to accept a case. They need to understand, “What would a knowledgeable company or expert think of this situation?” “What are our chances of winning this lawsuit?” “Would an expert testify on these fact patterns as we perceive them?”

Guiding the associate attorneys in communication When it comes to preparing the case and discovery strategy, a science expert should effectively manage the deadline pressures: give fast service, accentuate as much as you can and explain briefly, follow your outline, and tailor your opinion without making assumptions about the audience as you write to different client levels. The attorney has no patience with excessive jargon and lack of understanding. The client needs the bottom line, wants you to “cut to the case” and needs “reality checks.”

5. The Future of Science Expert Consulting: Emerging Trends and Opportunities

Although some of the developments discussed in the previous sections present significant challenges to the science expert consulting field, there are also abundant opportunities and trends that both increase the role of science expertise in public policy and extend the capabilities of science expert consultants. These trends fall into several broad categories: (1) new fields of work for science expert consultants and (2) technology as an enabler, and (3) an increasingly diverse set of service providers.

1. New Fields of Work for Science Expert Consultants:

A new priority in science and technology for federal homeland security agencies, as well as an increase in the funding and programs for the WMD Commission, the NRC to Address U.S. needs for biologically competent personnel in the 21st century (2006) report of the US National Academy Advisory Board for the Interagency Board for Infrastructure Modernization, National Research Council (NRC 2006), and the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility Alliance (N-BAFA) can provide new opportunities for consulting. These could range from assistance in the process of definition and design of physical and decisional biosafety containment to methods and systems of bioengineering and biosensing; new production organization in the fields of plant engineering and manufacturing; dependency and reliability assessment.