The failure thus far of the Canadian government’s efforts to promote Gardasil, a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer, carries important lessons for advocates of evidence-based policy-making. The Public Health Agency of Canada’s 2006 approval of Gardasil was the culmination of a policy-making process that prioritizes evidence over political concerns. […]
Author: Admin
Peter Wells Receives the Susan Snow-Cotter Leadership Award
Dr. Peter Wells, a founding member of the Environmental Information: Use and Influence research team, has been named the 2013 recipient of the Susan Snow-Cotter Leadership Award by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment (GOMC). The award was presented at an awards ceremony in Salem, Massachusetts on 12 June 2013. The Susan […]
New EIUI Paper on the Necessity and Benefits of Interdisciplinary Research
The Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research team’s new paper “Tracking the influence of grey literature in public policy contexts: The necessity and benefits of interdisciplinary research has been published in The Grey Journal (vol. 9, no. 2, 2013). As this paper notes: “The necessity of interdisciplinary investigation becomes clear when the complexity of […]
Citizen science: A new path to citizen engagement and evidence-based policy
Evidence-based policy is seen as a key factor in formulating successful policies. In recent years interest for more evidence-based policy has increased but the capacity of governments to pursue this approach has proven to be low (Howlett, 2009). A variety of opinions exist on how best to address the evidence-based policy policy gap and […]
Suzuette Soomai and François Bregha win awards at the 2013 Sustainable Oceans Conference
Suzuette Soomai and François Bregha, two research students in the EIUI research team, were named winners of awards for papers presented at the recent 2013 Sustainable Oceans Conference. Interdisciplinary PhD student, Suzuette Soomai, won the Building Bridges award for her paper on “Understanding the Science-Policy Interface: Measuring Use and Influence of Information in Policy-Making,” and […]
Grey Literature in the Marine Sciences: Recognizing Its Importance, Retaining It for Canadians
We have been pursuing research on awareness and use of marine scientific information, especially grey literature, at the science-policy interface for several years and have been focussing on the significance of enablers and barriers to information use. Lately, we have become increasingly concerned about recent federal government decisions to substantially reduce the number of government […]
Exploring Advances in Understanding the Science-Policy Interface: Highlights from the AAAS Conference, February 2013
Peter Wells, a member of the EIUI research team, attended the 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Conference in Boston recently (www.aaas.org/meetings/2013/ ). The theme of the conference was “The Beauty and Benefits of Science,” and two sessions were of special note, namely, “Communicating science to policy makers” and “New tools […]
Media and Policy: Transition and Influence
Modern public policy is often influenced by the news media. Frequently we see policy issues either set aside or placed centre-stage depending on the ways in which they are covered in the media. This post will look at the role of news media and social media, specifically scientific, in the policy process, as well as […]
Information to Policy Challenge – Public Lecture – 8 March 2013
Bertrum MacDonald was featured as the first speaker in the series of public lectures offered by the Dalhousie School of Public Administration in collaboration with the Nova Scotia Federal Council. Addressing an audience of federal, provincial, and municipal decision makers in downtown Halifax on 8 March 2013, Dr. MacDonald spoke about the Information to Policy […]
EIUI Gives Presentation to Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment Working Group
Bertrum MacDonald and Peter Wells gave a presentation about the Environmental Information: Use and Influence research initiative to the Working Group of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, which met in Halifax on 5 March 2013. The presentation outlined the recent history of the EIUI initiative and, in particular, research undertaken collaboratively […]