The legislature finds that public policies and programs will be improved when informed by independent scientific analysis and communication with state and local policymakers. Throughout the state there are highly qualified persons in a wide range of scientific disciplines who are willing to contribute their time and expertise in such reviews, but that presently there is lacking an organizational structure in which the entire scientific community may most effectively respond to requests for assessments of complex public policy questions. Therefore it is the purpose of chapter 305, Laws of 2005 to authorize the creation of the Washington academy of sciences as a nonprofit entity independent of government, whose principal mission will be the provision of scientific analysis and recommendations on questions referred to the academy by the governor, the governor's designee, or the legislature.