Public Policy Center, University of Nebraska
Date of this Version
July 2005
Abstract
In 1997, a task force of faculty and administrators from across the five campuses of the University of Nebraska determined that NU “should do more to make public policy expertise and resources available to Nebraskans” and recommended the creation of a university-wide policy center to assist Nebraska’s policymakers (“Recommendations for a University-Wide Public Policy Center,” July 1, 1997). In January 1998, the University’s Board of Regents formally established the Public Policy Center (PPC) as a unit to assist policymakers on a wide range of public policy issues.
The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center (http://ppc.nebraska.edu/ ) functions as an outreach and engagement unit of the University that serves the state and communities in Nebraska, as well as the nation, by providing information to policymakers that allows them to make better strategic decisions about policy options. The center conducts original research as well as mining information from the existing literature. In addition to directly assisting policymakers, the Center also serves a brokering function, that links policymakers with the vast expertise that exists at a large, public (and in this case, land-grant) university.
Comments
Delivered July 2005. Published in M. L. Rice (Ed.), The Interface of Science and Public Policy. Merrill Series on the Research Mission of Public Universities: Merrill Advanced Studies Center Report No. 109 (2005), pp. 55-61. Lawrence: University of Kansas Merrill Advanced Studies Center. Copyright © 2005 Alan J. Tomkins. Available on-line from http://merrill.ku.edu/publications/2005whitepaper.pdf.