Suzuette Soomai, Postdoctoral Fellow with the EIUI research program, will participate in a panel organized by the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) at the 2017 Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC), 1-3 November 2017, in Ottawa. The panel, “Science for Decision-Making at Fisheries and Oceans Canada: The Past, Present, and Future,” will discuss the role of scientific information produced in DFO’s Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) process. Moreover, this session will explore the origins, current practises, challenges, and visions for the future from the perspectives of DFO’s Science and Management branches and academic researchers. Suzuette will draw on her doctoral and postdoctoral research to speak about the information pathways – production, communication, and use of scientific information – in decision-making in DFO. This panel will address the conference theme “How can we more effectively bring new and existing scientific knowledge to bear on Canada’s challenges?”
The CSPC, which was established in 2009, annually provides a forum for non-partisan, national dialogue on science, technology, and policy. Each year, the conference attracts politicians, professionals from government (federal and provincial) and industry, university researchers, and individuals from the non-profit sector. In recognition of Canada’s 150th Anniversary, the 2017 CSPC themes will highlight how science-based knowledge has been used to meet Canada’s challenges to date and how such knowledge can be used more effectively over the next 50 years.
Members of the Environmental Information: Use and Influence research program have participated in the annual CSPC conference since 2013. At the 2016 CSPC conference, EIUI hosted a panel in the theme session, “A Culture of Policy Making and Evidence-Based Decision-Making: Horizons and Challenges” which drew on the research and public sector experience of the panelists to characterize how information moves from scientists to decision-makers at the science-policy interface.
Author: Suzuette Soomai
