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 […]
Science-Policy Interface
The Significance of Information in Impact Assessments: A New Paper Co-Authored by EIUI Researcher Ian Stewart
The current crisis unfolding in eastern Europe on Ukrainian soil has brought renewed media attention to the international geo-political stage of the importance of energy infrastructure. How energy is produced, processed, transported, and ultimately consumed plays a dominant role in shaping our world. So does the choice of that energy source. In the context of […]
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 […]
Navigating Towards an Effective Science-Policy Interface
Science and scientific knowledge are utilized in everyday operations of society and policy (van den Hove, 2007). Moreover, scientific knowledge provided by scientists and scientific organizations directly impacts our society through its relationships with decision-making at various government levels (van den Hove, 2007). However, the different needs, expectations, and even language used by those involved […]
Controlling Global Climate Change at COP 26: Moving from Science-Policy Discussions to Meaningful and Timely Action
Image credit: North Cornwall (UK) coastline, P. G. Wells photo. The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) will meet in Glasgow, Scotland, from 31 October to 12 November 2021 to move the climate change agenda forward from where it left off in Paris in 2015. COP 26 follows a large number […]
Science-Policy Interface Books EIUI Team Members are Reading This Summer
In the midst of the daily publication of new journal papers that warrant attention, books are often set aside for reading. Much like many other busy researchers, EIUI team members find time during the summer to catch up. Because the science-policy interface arena is very active globally, the line-up of new books in this field […]
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 […]
Managing Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction: New Publications Examine Ongoing Treaty Negotiations at the United Nations
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a landmark international treaty that entered into force in 1994, provides the legal framework for the sustainable development of the oceans. UNCLOS covers a wide range of issues in a text containing over 300 articles. Over the decades since the treaty’s completion in 1982, […]
Chemical Contaminants in the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy: New Paper on Monitoring, with Policy Implications
The Environmental Information: Use and Influence research program has had a long affiliation with the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment (GOMC) through preparation of bibliographies of the GOMC publications (Cordes et al, 2006; Ross et al., 2014), evaluation of the use and influence of that literature (Cossarini et al., 2014; MacDonald et […]