Decision Science and Market Transformation Pathways

On December 3–4, 2015, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences convened a meeting in partnership with DOE and the Association for Psychological Science to evaluate how DOE and other government agencies have applied insights from the decision sciences and to identify areas for further improvement.

The “Decision Science and Market Transformation Pathways Workshop” brought together representatives from the social science research community, DOE, the National Laboratories, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, the National Research Council, and the White House SBST. The workshop participants identified barriers that continue to impede the incorporation of decision science research into government programs, with a specific focus on energy programs. In addition, they offered numerous strategies to overcome these barriers and ensure that energy programs meet their full potential. In the following sections, we describe the suggestions presented by workshop participants, followed by a proposed research agenda for a collaborative effort among government research agencies.