Recently, I experienced a week I will not soon forget. Along with 11 other graduate students, I was given the opportunity to attend the science-policy workshop Science Outside the Lab North (SOtL) in Ottawa and Montreal. Originating as a Washington D.C.-based program, Matthew Harsh and Eric Kennedy brought SOtL to Canada in 2016, and this […]
Public Policy & Decision-Making
Ocean Connectivity – EIUI Researcher Conducts Study in Falmouth, Massachusetts
What does the ocean mean to residents of coastal communities? What information informs their views about the ocean? How do these views relate to oceanographic and coastal data? How can citizens’ views about their connections to the ocean inform public policy? These questions underlie a research project being conducted by Simon Ryder-Burbidge, a graduate student […]
New paper by EIUI team member on the role of evidence in UK marine planning
EIUI team member Elizabeth De Santo has published a new paper on her research about the role of evidence in marine planning, entitled “California dreaming: Challenges posed by transposing science-based marine protected area planning processes in different political contexts.” This paper critically assesses the role of evidence in the development of a network of Marine […]
EIUI Book Chapter Post: What Good are State of the Environment Reports?
“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). Is […]
EIUI Book Receiving Positive Reviews
EIUI’s new book Science, information, and policy interface for effective coastal and ocean management is receiving positive reviews that emphasize key features of the volume. Writing in Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, Agnieszka Hunka of Halmstad University, Sweden stated: “The overall take-home message of Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management […]
EIUI Team Member Publishes Two Papers on the Science-Policy Interface in Fisheries Management
Dr. Suzuette Soomai, Postdoctoral Fellow with the EIUI research program, is the author of two new papers that discuss communication of information at the science-policy interface. These papers are based on Suzuette’s doctoral research, which examined the information pathways – production, communication, and use of scientific information – at the operational level in the Canada […]
EIUI Team Member Participates in IPBES-5 Plenary, Bonn, Germany
EIUI team member Dr. Elizabeth De Santo participated in the 5th Plenary Session of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) held in Bonn, Germany, 6-10 March 2017. As a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, Elizabeth was part of the IUCN delegation to the meeting, which began […]
The 2017 AAAS Conference – “Serving Society through Science Policy” – Highlights and Key Messages
This year’s conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) took place in Boston, MA, 16-20 February, with the theme: “Serving Society through Science Policy.” The full program and other information are available at this link. The sessions that I attended illustrated the numerous dimensions of current research and discussion on the […]
EIUI Team Member Presents Papers at the International Studies Association Conference
Dr. Elizabeth De Santo, EIUI team member and Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, presented two papers at the 58th annual conference of the International Studies Association in Baltimore on 22-25 February 2017. Close to 6,000 people participated in the meeting, which provides a key forum for social scientists on […]
Informational Governance Sheds Needed Light on Decision-Making Processes
The complex functions that scientific information, and research-based evidence in general, fulfill in decision-making processes receive less attention than they could or should. These functions seem to be invisible to most, probably in part due to the massive volume of information available today. Like the air we breathe, the importance of information and its use […]