Once an aquatic species is added to Canada’s list of endangered flora and fauna under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA), does the best available information make its way into decision-making to promote the recovery of the species? Resource management, including the management of endangered species, can be challenging due to the involvement of […]
Science Communication
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, […]
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 […]
Exploring the Role of the Media in Scientific Communication
A crucial component of the present-day understanding of media is the extent that traditional and modern forms have become interconnected with many other aspects of our lives. Referred to as a media ecology, Lester and Foxwell-Norton (2020) note that media has expanded beyond its traditional boundaries to become inseparable from our social lives and is […]
Enablers and Barriers to Communicating Research-Based Information in Public Policy Contexts
Pressing concerns about protecting human and environmental well-being from climate change illustrates the need for public policy decisions to reflect scientific knowledge. Policy and decision-makers, local communities, and citizens depend on research-based information to make evidence-informed decisions. If scientific communities fail to engage with external audiences using appropriate methods of communication, the policy sphere is […]
A tribute to Professor Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University
Image (E.O. Wilson, Wikipedia, Creative Commons License) Dr. E. O. (Ed) Wilson, one of America’s most recognized and influential biologists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, sadly passed away during the Christmas holidays at the age of 92, after a long and highly productive career and retirement. His many papers and books, on topics […]
New EIUI Paper: Using Interpersonal Communication Strategies to Encourage Science Conversations on Social Media
The internet has become our main information source, particularly noticeable during the pandemic. Currently, over half of the global population is online, with billions also using social media. We now have access to an enormous volume of information, but its quality ranges from helpful to harmful, especially on important scientific and political topics. An […]
50 Years On: The 1970 SS Arrow Oil Spill in Nova Scotia’s Coastal Waters – Science and Decision Making in an Environmental Emergency
On 4 February 1970, the oil tanker SS Arrow ran aground on the rocks of Chedabucto Bay on Nova Scotia’s east coast and four days later about two thirds of the 14,700 ton cargo of Bunker C oil spilled into the Bay. Recently, I collaborated with two Department of Fisheries and Oceans-Bedford Institute of Oceanography […]
Evidence-Informed Decision Making: A Timely Graduate Course
The scheduling of the graduate course, “Information in Public Policy and Decision Making,” offered by the Dalhousie University School of Information Management could hardly be more timely or important. Troubling as the COVID-19 pandemic has been, as the virus infiltrated countries and caused havoc around the globe, it presented an exceptional case for students to […]
Improving Use of Research-Based Information in Policy Contexts
The importance of evidence-informed decision-making is being recognized more and more within the broader scientific and political landscape. For critical issues like climate change, well-informed and structured policies can bring substantial progress to current and future mitigation and adaptation strategies. This awareness has resulted in increased efforts to design science-policy engagement strategies and best practices […]