The first session on the theme “A New Culture of Policy Making and Evidence-Based Decision-Making: Horizons and Challenges” at the Eighth Canadian Science Policy conference in Ottawa on 8-10 November 2016 will feature a panel organized by EIUI. Four members of the research team (Peter Wells, Kevin Quigley, Lee Wilson, and Suzuette Soomai), along with […]
“The Science-Policy Interface in Coastal and Ocean Management” is a series of posts highlighting the chapters in the new book: Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management, edited by Bertrum H. MacDonald, Suzuette S. Soomai, Elizabeth M. De Santo, and Peter G. Wells, published by CRC Press (Taylor & Francis). Science, […]
“Current Literature” is a recurring feature highlighting recent publications of interest on the science-policy interface. Much scholarship investigating the use of scientific information in the management of marine ecosystems has naturally focused on direct use by policy- and decision-makers. However, the range of stakeholders with an interest and a role to play in […]
A very important and topical area of scientific and technical research ongoing in Canada and around the world concerns the fate and effects of hydrocarbons when released into marine, freshwater, and land-based ecosystems. In the Canadian context, a recent massive study carried out under the direction of the Royal Society of Canada required 461 pages […]
The 2016 Coastal Zone Canada conference, organized by the Coastal Zone Canada Association, was held on 12-16 June 2016 at the University of Toronto’s Chestnut Convention Centre in Toronto. This biennial conference provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and information related to coastal zone management in Canada and globally. Representatives from universities […]
The EIUI research team launched the new volume, Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management, on 6 June 2016 at Dalhousie University. Edited by Bertrum H. MacDonald, Suzuette S. Soomai, Elizabeth M. De Santo, and Peter G. Wells, this timely volume was published by CRC Press (division of Taylor & Francis). […]
Measuring the use of research-based information is a difficult task, as perhaps best summed up by Nutley, Walter and Davies: “we are unlikely any time soon to see . . . comprehensive evidence neatly linking research, research use, and research impacts” (2007, p. 271). Despite the challenge, it is important to try, for at least […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]