In 2008, the effort was co-chaired by U.S. House representatives Vernon J. Ehlers and Rush D. Holt, Jr., and the steering committee includes Chris Mooney, Matthew Chapman, Arne Carlson, Lawrence Krauss, Sheril Kirshenbaum, John Rennie, and Shawn Lawrence Otto.
Both Barack Obama and John McCain participated in the initiative, which marked the first time in history the endorsed candidates for president laid out detailed science policies before the election.
[2] Other supporters included politicians,[3] prominent research universities, Nobel laureates, business institutions, and science media editors.
Originally, the four top candidates for the 2008 election, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee, and John McCain, were officially invited to discuss science and technology issues at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute on April 18, 2008.
[15] An editorial in Nature cautioned that "the proposed debate can be seen as an attempt by various élite institutions to grab the microphone and set the agenda from the top down"[16] and Nature columnist David Goldston stated that "there is no reason to assume that a presidential debate on science matters would be instructive for the public or helpful to scientists.