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Bridging
the policy-science gap
The inherent ecological and societal complexity of water management
challenges means that management decisions are always challenged by
a lack of factual knowledge. This situation is exacerbated by
rapidly changing physical and socio-economic boundary conditions
such as climate change. Although much new knowledge on the issue of
climate change impacts on water resources has been generated, these
understandings remain poorly exploited by policy makers and water
managers. In recent years, considerable effort has been
devoted to designing approaches that support dialogue between
science and policy communities in an attempt to relate science,
experience and insight to policy. Knowledge brokering instruments
such as role playing, simulation games, group model building, soft
systems analysis and futures visioning, offer opportunities to
increase the effectiveness of these interactions, thus facilitating
a discourse on the framing of policy issues, collaborative learning
as well as the exchange and co-creation of
relevant knowledge.
PSI-connect
is a three-year collaborative project funded under EC FP7.
Through experimentation with and development of
innovative knowledge brokering instruments, PSI-connect aims to
improve the quality and value of interactions between the science
base and river basin managers and policy makers in the field of
climate change impacts on river systems. PSI-connect
will:
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generate
insight into how the science policy gap can be bridged in the
context of water management and climate change.
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develop
and test different types of knowledge brokering instruments in
concrete policy situations at the European, national and
regional level.
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provide
descriptions of different types of knowledge brokering
instruments and conditions for their successful application.
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introduce different science and policy actors to knowledge
brokering instruments through case studies, thus encouraging a
further dissemination of the tools to a wider audience.
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The long
term impact of the project will be ensured through initiation of
problem or sector specific forums for information exchange and
deliberation, the Knowledge Brokerage Collectives.
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