The Impact of Public Consultations on Decision-Making: A Necessary Source of Information

As governments are faced with solving increasingly complex social issues, recognition is growing that research-based information alone cannot resolve these issues. Public consultation is a vital source of information to understand citizen and stakeholder interests better and incorporate diverse considerations into policy development. Along with these benefits, public consultation involves many challenges. It is a […]

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Measuring the Use and Influence of Research-Based Information: Finding Meaning in Complexity

While research-based information can be transmitted in a variety of ways, such as through publications or conference presentations, the question of whether such information is being used by or influencing policymakers themselves remains. The resulting interest in evaluation of both the use and influence of research is driven by two groups: decision makers, who are […]

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Enablers and Barriers: Communicating Scientific Information to the Public

We live in an information age, where reams of new data are available on every matter of scientific inquiry. But these advances have only created challenges for communicators of scientific information. Scientists scour raw data and transform them into new information and knowledge but employing this knowledge to produce behavioural change in the voting, eating, […]

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What is “Evidence” in Evidence-Based Policy? Brief Discussion of Selected Recent Literature

In today’s post-pandemic world where evidence-based decision making has gained extensive public prominence, understanding how evidence is defined helps to explain why reference is frequently made about its use in many and diverse settings and why evidence can be contested. In this blog post, we summarize and integrate the key findings of six recent academic […]

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Science and Policy Interacting to Address the Human Population Crisis — The Wizard and the Prophet: A Review

This book is an exemplary example of how research in environmental science and policy interweaves in areas crucially important to humanity’s future. It describes the efforts of two scientists concerned about the global impact of human population increases in the twentieth century and their opposing views and approaches to tackling “the problem.” The scientists are […]

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Impact Assessment, Climate Change, and Environmental Effects Monitoring: Collaborations and Conference Presentations

Early Fall 2022 was a busy time for me as it involved two online conference presentations. First up was the Celsius 1.5: Impact Assessment and Climate Change conference of the South Africa chapter of International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) in Cape Town, 26-28 September 2022. Following on new connections made at the IAIA conference […]

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Being There: The International Impact Assessment Community Meets in Vancouver

  I was pleased to be present for my first in-person conference since the COVID pandemic at the 2022 annual conference of the International Association of Impact Asssesment (IAIA) held in Vancouver, British Columbia, 4-7 May 2022. This conference was jointly hosted by the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office, and the Salish Nations  Xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm […]

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From Species at Risk to the Science-Policy Interface: EIUI at Conferences

After two years of cancelled or online-only conferences, members of the EIUI research team welcomed the opportunity to attend and participate in in-person conferences again where discussion and many conversations flowed around research work and resource management subjects. Two recent nearby conferences allowed several team members to present the results of current research projects and […]

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