Bertrum MacDonald, research lead for the Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research program, has been appointed Visiting Researcher by the International Ocean Institute-Canada (IOI-Canada) for 2016-2017. Dr. MacDonald, who recently concluded a term as Dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie and is on a year-long research leave, will continue his line of study aimed at advancing understanding of the many pathways of information (scientific, social science, and local) at the science-policy interface in marine environmental contexts. He and EIUI colleagues recently published Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Ocean and Coastal Management (CRC Press, 2016), which is the first book to focus exclusively on the role of scientific information in the development of coastal and ocean policy and management of the oceans. The EIUI research program is pursuing case studies with governmental and intergovernmental organizations in Canada and internationally. This research is currently supported by an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The EIUI team will also be undertaking studies in research modules of the recently announced Ocean Frontier Institute that is supported by a $93.7 million grant Canada First Research Excellence Fund to Dalhousie University.
In announcing the appointment, Michael Butler, Director of IOI-Canada, stated that he is “very pleased that Dr. MacDonald will be affiliated with IOI-Canada over the year, particularly as he is one of our loyal Training Program lecturers and he will be researching a very important component of Ocean Governance.”
The International Ocean Institute-Canada is a leading member of the worldwide network of International Ocean Institute centres and focal points. IOI-Canada aims “to promote responsible ocean governance and the stewardship and sustainable use of coastal and ocean resources in Canada and around the world.” To pursue this mission, IOI-Canada offers training programs, public lectures, and serves as a focal point for oceans-related research through the appointment of senior research fellows and visiting researchers. For over 35 years IOI-Canada has offered a two month program on Ocean Governance, which was initiated by Elisabeth Mann Borgese in 1981. Each year marine managers around the globe travel to Halifax for the program on policy, law, and management, which emphasizes “the importance of viewing the ocean as a system with varied users and multiple, often competing and conflicting uses.” This program also “aims to increase awareness of the fact that ocean management requires broad interdisciplinary skills, new institutional and legal infrastructures, and new forms of intergovernmental and non-governmental organisation and cooperation at the local, national and international levels.”
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