The Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research program is very pleased to announce that two public panel sessions on the subject of Science in Public Life will be presented on 9 and 11 October 2018 in Halifax. EIUI is hosting these panels, along with co-sponsors, to address key questions about the role of information […]
Information Use & Influence
Benefits and Misuse of Research Impact Indicators: Three New Books on Metrics
Does research output have any impact? Do the investments in personnel and other research resources actually advance understanding and contribute to societal and environmental well-being? These questions have captivated the minds of researchers, funders, and policy makers for decades. While some quantifiable indicators, such as citations, have been widely adopted, debates about the merits and […]
Emerging Issues, Challenges, and Priorities: The 12th BoFEP Bay of Fundy Science Workshop
Since 1996, the Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership (BoFEP) has organized major scientific workshops approximately every two years. The twelfth, attended by over 100 speakers and participants on 9-12 May 2018 in Truro, Nova Scotia, focused on “A Changing Fundy Environment: Emerging Issues, Challenges, and Priorities.” The workshops bring researchers, managers, policymakers, and community representatives […]
Improving the Use of Climate Change Information in Mitigation and Adaptation Decision-Making: A Book Review
Why are policy measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation being implemented at such a slow pace, especially when significant efforts are being made to generate climate change information? Communicating Climate Change Information for Decision-Making strives to answer this very important question. In their introduction, editors Silvia Serrao-Neumann, Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, […]
EIUI Research Project: Criteria for Assessing Working Group Approaches for Informing Decision-Making in Public Policy
Many issues continue to cause severe changes to ocean environments and may be classified as “wicked” problems. At the same time, extensive scientific information exists that has the potential to inform management and policy in addressing the issues. However, a challenge persists in translating this information into usable forms for decision makers to make informed […]
Assessing Research Use in Policy and Decision-Making Contexts: The Importance of Models
The relationships between research and policy and research and practice have been theorized in different ways. Several models have been conceptualized over time, which provide different frameworks for thinking about and understanding the research use process (Nutley, Walter, & Davies, 2007a). These models take several complexities into consideration that forms of research use can take […]
EIUI Co-Sponsors Panel on the Concept of Stock Assessment and Fisheries Management Decisions
On 8-9 March 2018, the Environmental Information: Use and Influence research program co-sponsored a visit by Dr. Jennifer Telesca (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York) to Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College. At the panel, Dr. Telesca led off with a presentation that drew on her paper “Accounting for Loss in Fish Stocks: A […]
A Complicated Web: The Benefits and Challenges of the News and Social Media in Promoting Awareness of Research-Based Information
Massive changes in communication activities due to the rapid rise of social media and transformation in the traditional news media over the past decade have both increased opportunities for researchers to disseminate the results of their studies as well as presented challenges because of the plethora of information channels. Although information can potentially be transmitted […]
Public Participation in Policy: A More Inclusive Approach to Decision Making
The field of policy making can be influenced by a host of government agencies, interest groups, associations, and social movements, both on a domestic and global scale (Pal, 2010). Considering that the range of players involved depends on the issue at hand, policy literatures have introduced the two concepts of policy community and policy network […]
EIUI Team Members Publish a Paper on Key Characteristics of a Communication Network in Marine Resource Development
Public policy decisions are frequently made within complex interconnecting networks of many stakeholders. Decisions about environmental problems, for example, often involve an extensive array of different participants. In an effort to influence policy decisions, these individuals, groups, and organizations participate in networks to gain an understanding of the issues and to ensure their (sometimes competing) […]