Models represent pivotal tools in the process of scientific discovery and justification: they require constant update, test, and revision to keep a vivid contact with scientific activity and development. With respect to more traditional accounts, current literature on the topic emphasizes not only the capacity of specific models to simply denote target systems, but rather their ability to perform definite tasks of interest. This focus proves beneficial for highly complex scenarios, which inevitably call for less-than-true models and yet require criteria of reliability to be defined. The present workshop aims to gather experts in the field to discuss the status of scientific models in the highly debated and policy-relevant fields of climate science and nuclear energy. The goal is to explore the interplay between the features underlying these models – such as the associated assumptions, representative and predictive power, empirical validation – with the broader context in which these models are built, discussed and shared, which embody specific environmental, economic, as well as socio-cultural values. This analysis is particularly crucial in the current historical and economic juncture, where a mutually beneficial interchange between scientific and political institutions calls for guiding criteria that are liable, disputable, and open to discussion.  

Conference organizers 

Elena Castellani (University of Florence), Roukaya Dekhil (LMU Munich), Emilia Margoni (University of Geneva)

Project funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.1 — Call for tender No. 1409/2022 of 14/09/2022 of the Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. Prot. P2022ACHYA, Concession Decree No. 1375 of 01/09/2023 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP B53D23032610001, Science in times of emergency: the role of scientific knowledge in policy-making during crises.