{"id":873,"date":"2026-09-01T16:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T15:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/?p=873"},"modified":"2026-09-01T18:07:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:07:29","slug":"tuning-ears-for-the-future-a-new-project-and-vision-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/2026\/09\/01\/tuning-ears-for-the-future-a-new-project-and-vision-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuning EARS for the Future: A New Project and Vision Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are delighted to launch ‘Tuning EARS for the Future’ \u2013 a new 12-month research project led by the Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice (GSEJ) and the Progress Educational Trust (PET), with funding from the Wellcome Trust \u2013 together with our joint vision paper, After Attitudes: Tracking the Distance Between Science and Society to Guide Action<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

A collaboration between Joy Y. Zhang<\/a> (GSEJ), Sarah Norcross<\/a> (PET), Sandy Starr<\/a> (PET) and Andy Jin<\/a> (Royal Agricultural University), the project starts with a simple but important challenge: public attitudes matter, but knowing what people think does not necessarily tell us what to do next.<\/p>\n

EARS turns the question around. Instead of asking only ‘What do people think?’, we ask ‘where does the distance between science and society lie, and what action might it warrant?’<\/p>\n

As a new experimental strand of the ODESSI initiative<\/a>, EARS is both an intellectual adventure and a methodological experiment and it is rooted in three propositions:<\/p>\n

Trust is not agreement.<\/em>
\nDistance is not a deficit.<\/em>
\nCollective action is not conformity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the next 12 months, GSEJ and PET will develop and test EARS, a compass for action that maps social distance across four dimensions \u2013 Epistemic, Affective, Resource and Structural. Working with members of the public and LGBTQ+ communities, we will explore the approach through two contrasting genomic cases: direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC genomics) and in vitro gametogenesis (IVG).<\/p>\n

Importantly, EARS does not assume that all distance should be closed. Sometimes responsible governance means building bridges; sometimes it means maintaining distance or creating new boundaries. What matters is warranted distance: knowing what should be bridged, what should remain, and where action can make a difference.<\/p>\n

Our new vision paper (link to be added) sets out the thinking behind EARS and opens up the conversation. Our ambition is to develop a transferable approach that researchers, funders and engagement practitioners can use to move from measuring attitudes to guiding action. We would love others to collaborate, participate, challenge and critique as we put the approach to the test.<\/p>\n

Help us to tune EARS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are delighted to launch ‘Tuning EARS for the Future’ \u2013 a new 12-month research project led by the Centre for Global Science and Epistemic … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78017,"featured_media":877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78017"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":882,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}