How to become an influential scientist? Bridging the Science-Policy-Practice Interface
How to become an influential scientist? Bridging the Science-Policy-Practice Interface Juergen Weichselgartner GKSS Research Center Institute for Coastal Research 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines Introduction What are difficulties in GEC research? What are barriers at the SPPI? How to become an influential scientists? Photo: J. Weichselgartner What are we doing? Our approach to understanding the Earth System has been to cut the “big picture” into small pieces. Some of the pieces lack detail, others are missing entirely – but … 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What has to be done? … “putting together the puzzle” is a rigorous scientific enterprise and does not happen automatically! Someone needs to put together the puzzle! 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What is needed? … requires a systemic / integrative approach … - to understand natural hazard processes and their interdependencies … an action-oriented / applied approach … - to develop and implement mitigation strategies in a sustainable way 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What are difficulties? • Process characteristics (multidimensional, socially divergent, dynamic, interactive, scale-dependent) • Interactions across scales (local − global) Process-level: understanding 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines Example: deforestation Amazon Snyder et al. (2004): Climate Dynamics (23): 279-302 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What are difficulties? • Process characteristics (multidimensional, socially divergent, dynamic, interactive, scale-dependent) • Interactions across scales (local − global) • Language-conceptual dissonance (among scientific disciplines) • Non-cumulative research results System-level: integration Process-level: understanding 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines Example: climate research 1822: Fourier identified the “greenhouse effect” 1839: Schönbein isolated ozone (O3) by sparking air 1872: Smith described acidic rain from air pollutants 1896: Arrhenius calculated the sensitivity of Earth’s surface temperature to changes in CO2; forecast slow global warming 1930: Chapman discovered the physical and chemical processes that lead to the formation of an ozone layer 1960: Keeling reveals the secular increase of CO2 from direct measurement 2007: U.S. Supreme Court recognized CO2 as a pollutant Example: heterogeneous knowledge 16. December, 1986 1969: Baffling problem (Chapman’s theory led to overestimation of the amount of O3; Crutzen proposed catalytic reduction via NO) 1970: Crutzen & Johnston describe the NOx-induced O3-destruction cycle 1985: Farman et al. discover the ozone hole 1995: Nobel Prize in chemistry to Crutzen, Molina & Rowland Source: P. Crutzen Stockholm, 18 September, 2007 What are difficulties? • Process characteristics (multidimensional, socially divergent, dynamic, interactive, scale-dependent) • Interactions across scales (local − global) • Language-conceptual dissonance (among scientific disciplines) • Non-cumulative research results • Funding mechanisms Policy/Practice-level: application (time frames, scope) • Interface barriers System-level: integration (science, policy, practice) Process-level: understanding 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines Example: changing risk perception Source: R. MacDonald Vancouver, 30 May, 2007 Example: political will “We must explore every reasonable prospect for meeting our energy needs when our current domestic reserves of oil and natural gas begin to dwindle in the next decade. I urgently ask Congress and the new administration to move quickly on these issues. This Nation has the resources and the capability to achieve our energy goals if its Government has the will to proceed, and I think we do.” State of the Union Address Gerald R. Ford, 1975 (38. President of the USA, 1974-77) 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines Results from a case study analysis - How appropriate is the knowledge base to support efforts for vulnerability reduction? (analysis of 20 assessments > e.g., scope, recognition, integration) - What are barriers in the SPPI? (questionnaire survey / telephone interviews with 40 producers and 52 potential users > e.g., information sources, research process, audience, influence, usefulness, conflicts) - Where are linkages between assessment determinants and impact (correlations > e.g., authorship, gender, hazard type, recognition, location) 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What are used information sources? Regularly used information sources Internal Sources 65% 58% 71% 43% 35% 93% Scientific Sources Media Personal communication Users 38% Governmental Sources Non-governmental Sources Producers 50% 28% 44% 33% 48% (All numbers in %, rounded) 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What are critical information sources? Information sources and are most influential and critical to your work? 19% 48% 42% Data (statistics, census, maps) 45% 39% Scientific literature Models Media, government releases Users 50% Survey, fieldwork, personal communication Non-scientific literature Producers 13% 27% 10% 19% < 1% 50% (All numbers in %, rounded) 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What are producer-specific findings? • assessments are seldom co-produced with users and hardly address multiple scales • producers are well-aware of the limiting factors that prevent impact and fairly acquainted with the needs of decision makers • lower recognition when only author(s) set up research agenda • increasingly use a variety of information sources and consider scientific literature/data to be critical • disseminate through papers/reports 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What are user-specific findings? • male users use internal/scientific sources – female use governmental sources/personal communication/media • perceive assessments as highly credible and legitimate • well-recognized and highly integrated assessments address the users’ needs better than other assessments • are more aware of well-recognized assessments • 25%: no influence on actions 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What are shortcomings? Lack of … • addressing multiple scales • combining physical and social aspects • co-producing knowledge Problem Research Knowledge • recognizing institutional structures • communicating science Translation Transfer Adoption (small-scale) Diffusion (large-scale) Rejection • appreciating context • identifying needed knowledge • addressing users’ needs • ignoring management options • designing knowledge • ignoring cultural context • ignoring large-scale dynamics 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines What are main barriers? Functional: objectives, needs, scopes, priorities, fragmentation • many practical issues are not relevant/not known to scientists • multi-faceted questions that don't translate well to practitioners Structural: institut. settings, standards, time frame, reward system • practitioners lack accurate input data for proposed methods • “publish or perish” vs. clear recommendations Social: cultural values, communication, Photo: Weichselgartner understanding, mistrust • “big picture” vs. “broad-brush” • propose solutions that are often unworkable in practice • science language is too complex 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines How to overcome the barriers? • Create dense social networks that provide bi-directional links across scales and mechanisms for early problem identification in order to better match the needs of various users • Involve a variety of actors in setting up the research agenda and establish a shared problem perception within the group • Combine understanding from multiple sources in order to discover which can be adapted to diverse local contexts • Avoid to the use of generalizing, decontextualizing and reductionist approaches and strengthen integration of ecological and social approaches and tools • Engage end-users early in defining data needs to create a research process more likely to produce salient knowledge 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines Concluding remarks In order to become an influential scientists you should … • Include multiple types of expertise to increase credibility • Facilitate social memory and learning by providing a reservoir of experience from which solutions to new problems can be drawn, as well as an open window for new practices which may be needed under changed contexts • Engage in collaborative production of knowledge to build a “knowledge-action system”! Photo: Weichselgartner 2. EAS Youth Forum «Partnerships at Work: Local Implementation and Good Practices» 24 November 2009, Manila/Philippines Contact ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Dr. Juergen Weichselgartner Senior Science Coordinator IHDP/IGBP Core Project LOICZ Institute for Coastal Research, GKSS Research Center Max-Planck-Strasse 1, D-21502 Geesthacht, Germany Phone: +49 - 4152 - 871542 E-Mail: [email protected]
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