To ensure an optimal evidence-based decision making process, it is essential to have an understanding of the research-policy interface and to be able to measure the effectiveness of the use and influence of research on policy. Different models for conceptualizing the research-policy interface have emerged over the past several decades and have, increasingly, accepted the […]
Author: Admin
Reshaping Policy Development: Public Consultation and Advisory Processes
The function of public consultation and advisory processes in the development of public policy is complex and evolving. Some recent literature on this subject offers insights about the numerous roles that these processes can play in informing and developing policies and other governance practices, both at a global level and within a democratically governed state […]
EIUI Team Member Presents Paper at the International Studies Association (ISA) Conference in Atlanta, GA

EIUI team member Elizabeth De Santo (Department of Earth and Environment, Franklin & Marshall College) presented a paper at the International Studies Association (ISA) conference in Atlanta, GA on March 17th. Entitled “Militarized Marine Protected Areas: synergizing security and conservation objectives?”, Dr. De Santo’s paper was part of a panel she chaired on “Securing Marine […]
Managing the Communication of Research Information for Policy: Institutional Dynamics and the Social Component
Effective communication is a popular phrase within many institutions. At a basic level, communication involves purposeful exchange of information among parties. Failure to successfully transfer knowledge within this transaction can result in misunderstanding, misuse of time, and inappropriate or lack of action. Within a governmental context, this situation could result in wasted resources, ineffective policy, […]
Information Flow Frameworks: Communication of Research-Based Information into Policy
The demand for usable scientific information is increasing along with a greater need to understand how research-based information flows in pathways into both policy and practice settings. Yet, a number of issues with respect to the pathways, through which information is obtained, can impede the use of research in decision-making. The literature on this subject […]
New EIUI Book about the Science-Policy Interface to be Published in May 2016

The EIUI Research team is very pleased to announce that Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management will be published by CRC Press (division of Taylor & Francis) on 16 May 2016. This volume, edited by Bertrum H. MacDonald, Suzuette S. Soomai, Elizabeth M. De Santo, and Peter G. Wells, brings […]
EIUI Team Member Publishes a Paper on Assessing Public ‘Participation’ in Environmental Decision-Making

Elizabeth De Santo, Department of Earth and Environment at Franklin & Marshall College, Pennsylvania, and Adjunct Professor at Dalhousie University, recently published a new paper about public consultations regarding marine protected areas in the UK. The paper provides an assessment of public consultation processes and outlines implications resulting from the erosion of public confidence in the […]
EIUI Team Members Speak about their Research

EIUI team members, Suzuette Soomai, Lee Wilson, and Ian Stewart, recently spoke about their research in several academic and professional settings. Suzuette Soomai, Post-Doctoral Fellow, spoke about “Elucidating the Role of Scientific Information in Decision-making for Fisheries Management” in the Ocean and Ecosystem Science Seminar Series at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova […]
EIUI Team Member Participates in Course in China

Peter Wells, a member and co-lead of the Environmental Information: Use and Influence research team, and a senior research fellow at the International Ocean Institute (IOI), travelled to Haikou, Hainan, China, in late January 2016, with an IOI team (Figure 1) to attend and participate in the Inaugural Program of the China-Asean Academy on Ocean […]
SSHRC Five-Year Insight Grant Awarded to the EIUI Research Team
The Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research team is very pleased to announce that an application for an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) has been approved. The five-year (2015-2020) funding of $371,575.00 will support the team’s continuing research on questions about the use of information in […]