Beyond Ideology: AI and Workforce Development as Use Cases for Research and Policy Collaboration

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

Numerous U.S. states/territories are participating in the “Federal-State Government Partnerships Summit: Opportunities for Innovation and Impact,” a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project focused on examining current collaborations and the potential for new collaborations. The “state” component focuses largely on the roles of researchers and state government leaders but importantly incudes philanthropy and industry as well.  

Organized around workforce development and AI as “use case” topics, the Federal-State Government Partnerships effort is highly relevant to APPAM’s 2026 conference theme. More specifically, this statement in the conference description articulates both the challenge and possibility of the state-federal endeavor: “Measuring state-level variation and its impact on well-being is more important now than ever, and policy scholars bear responsibility for it.” The statement reinforces both the potential of the state-federal partnerships endeavor to contribute to impact on well-being and the importance of partnerships between policy scholars and representatives of other sectors for that impact to be as meaningful and lasting as possible.  

This roundtable session will feature the Chief Data Officer for the State of Hawai‘i, a professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin who focuses on cross-sector collaborations, a Duke University professor with policymaking, government-research, and government-philanthropy partnerships expertise, and two National Science Foundation leaders from the Strategic Partnerships Hub and the Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Directorate.  

This session will address the following questions:  
- Given the increasing role of state leaders’ ideology in making decisions about policies that affect residents’ well-being, how can experts across sectors at both the federal and state level collaborate to ensure that policy considerations include states’ economic, environmental, and social needs in areas as diverse and timely as workforce development and AI?  
- “Policy scholars” often focus their work on a few states or local jurisdictions. That research often does not (and at times cannot) take into account state-level variation. What guidance do the NSF and state-based leaders who are part of this roundtable have for policy scholars who seek to make their scholarship more widely relevant and used?  
- How can policy scholars who are “measuring state-level variation and its impact on well-being” engage state and federal government experts more strategically and consistently? To what extent does technology and/or AI influence the research and engagement? 
- From the initial efforts and outcomes of the Federal-State Government Partnerships project, what are the implications for how policy scholars can engage and contribute? 
- Panelists will reflect and comment on what “research to impact” means in the context of their roles and of this conference – and what must happen for research to have impact in the areas/s that the roundtable addresses.

Policy Area

• Innovations in Science and Technology

Moderator

• Joshua Childs, The University of Texas at Austin

Organizer

• Jenni W. Owen, Duke University

Speakers

• Rebecca Cai, State of Hawaii

• Mary Crowe, National Science Foundation

• Sarah Dunton, National Science Foundation

• Jenni W. Owen, Duke University