ABSTRACT
The first part of this chapter expands this argument to consider the implications of adopting a more forthright stance towards uncertainty and risk that recognises governments' distinctive role regarding uncertainty and risk. The Federation of Australian Scientific Societies used the 2006 paper articulating the case for preparedness as an outcome class as the basis of its submission to the Australian Government Productivity Commission's Review of Public Support for Science and Innovation in 2006. The nasty surprises faced as uncertainty and risk manager of last resort can end up being reflected in levels of public debt levels of debt that can be inflated if the ways in which we govern increases rather than decreases the potential for nasty surprises to occur. The manner in which this is done, as suggested in this chapter, is by allowing research outcomes to be more explicitly framed as translating substantive uncertainty into quantifiable risk.
