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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how temporal pressures shape scientific advisory systems during pandemics. Fast indicators easily dominate, pushing slower societal effects to the background. We argue that anticipating crises requires advisory systems that accommodate such temporal dynamics.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how temporal pressures shape scientific advisory systems during pandemics. Drawing on interviews and observations from UNITY’s work on integrated science advice in the Netherlands, we show that time is not merely a logistical constraint but a constitutive element that structures which knowledges are included, how legitimacy is negotiated, and what futures are imagined as actionable.

Pandemic governance unfolds through shifting tempos: early phases of uncertainty and urgency are followed by slower moving social, economic, and emotional effects. Yet advisory infrastructures often remain anchored in initial framings—such as infection control or hospital capacity—even as new societal concerns emerge. These path dependencies shape knowledge integration, narrowing what counts as relevant expertise and reinforcing imaginaries of “science” as fast, quantified, and biomedical.

Urgent decision making privileges fast, easily measurable indicators, while slower and harder to quantify issues—like mental health, educational disruption, or declining societal trust—are easily overlooked. This creates tensions between “fast” and “slow” science, between short and long term effects, and between narrow technical expertise and broader societal knowledge. Drawing on UNITY’s work, we examine how these temporal issues are addressed in integrated science advice.

We argue that these temporal dilemmas are fundamentally anticipatory: decisions about timelines define whose futures matter, which risks become visible, and what forms of knowledge are recognized as legitimate. Designing participatory and just crisis advisory systems requires frameworks that accommodate temporal plurality.