Each year, the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) agrees to a national conference that brings together over 1,000 scientific, educational, business, civil society, and government professionals from various fields to explore the connections between science and decision making. a particular high-profile environmental issue .

As part of the conference, NCSE also holds the annual John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture on Science and the Environment. The lecture provides a high-profile forum for communicating the importance and potential for science in environmental decision-making by a renowned expert in the field. At the conference, participants develop recommendations and strategies to achieve science-based solutions to complex environmental problems. Following the conference, NCSE:

1. Produces and disseminates conference recommendations developed by participants;
2. Provides briefings to Congress, other institutions, and decision-makers capable of implementing the conference recommendations;
3. Strives to develop or facilitate the development of new programs based on recommendations from the conference; and
4. Publishes the John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture.

Goals for the National Conference

1. Embrace has “solutions” focus for the meeting and its products
2. Select conference topics that are major challenges to the world and to which science can contribute significantly towards solutions.
3. Provide a rich “how-to” experience in the integration of environmental science and policy to develop solutions for major environmental challenges facing society .
4. Increase the number and diversity of participants at the conference.
5. Build on the meeting results in the other NCSE programs
6. Integrate Affiliate universities and colleges in the meeting more broadly and encourages them to become part of the implementation of the plans
7. Use the conference to broaden the network of NCSE’s supporters and its programs.