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 […]
Science-Policy Interface
Scientific Evidence at the Interface with Policy: Three New Books on Policy Work
Today, evidence-based policy making (EBPM) is widely reported in news stories and discussed in research publications. Even when use of evidence is obviously contested, decision makers recognize that the concept merits attention. The release in September 2017 of The promise of evidence-based policymaking, the final report of the American Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, for example, […]
EIUI Team Member Awarded KULE Research Grant to Study Environmental Impact Assessment Processes
While it is generally recognized that socio-ecological approaches to Environmental Impact Assessments require social science and humanities perspectives in order to address scientific, technological, managerial, policy, and governance challenges facing assessment processes in Canada, the engagement of expertise from the social sciences and humanities is often lacking. Dr. Ian Stewart, a faculty member in the […]
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 […]
EIUI Team Member Cited in Nature Article about the High Seas
In an article in the 9th May 2018 issue of Nature, Olive Heffernan explores issues about the protection of unregulated high seas ecosystems in advance of the United Nations treaty negotiation meetings in New York in September. With the possibility of a United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) add-on treaty laying […]
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 […]
Communication of Research Information: Information Pathways and Models
While many policy makers and practitioners heavily rely on information from the scientific community for their decision making, research about activities at the science-policy interface shows that information use is often not straightforward. Despite the large amounts of scientific information available to policy-makers and practitioners, there are still calls for more “useful” information to be […]
The Science-Policy Ecosystem: Managing Variabilities, Complexities, and Trade-offs
It is often believed that scientific information and knowledge travels through a linear pipeline that leads straight from researchers to policy makers to use in decision-making and planning. It isn’t so simple–values, political considerations, and available resources are all part of the policy-making process. Peter Gluckman, the Chief Science Advisor to the New Zealand Prime […]
Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management Now Available in Paperback
Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management is now available in paperback. Published by CRC Press (Taylor & Francis), this book is the first to focus exclusively on the role of scientific information in the development of coastal and ocean policy and management of the oceans. “Researchers looking for inspiration will […]