Creative Bureaucracy Festival meets Science: Interview Silva Mertsola

Now more than ever, governments worldwide are faced with the need to respond to problems quickly. Their organizational structures and processes, however, are not compatible with the tasks at hand. So what are the strengths and limits of integrating science into the public policy-making process to help solve such agile governance problems?

In this interview, Silva Mertsola, a senior expert on public governance at Demos Helsinki and deputy member of the city council of Helsinki, not only answers these questions but also highlights the need for knowledge brokers to help bridge the divide between science and bureaucracy. To her, such knowledge brokers are a critical missing link that, if left unaddressed, could negatively impact future collaboration and understanding between scientific and bureaucratic communities. Collaborative and humble governance ideals are at the heart of Silva’s quest to make bureaucracy more creative and open to scientific ideas.