RDM+PM Checklist: Towards a Measure of Your Institution’s Preparedness for the Effective Planning of Research Data Management

A review at our institution and a number of other Australian universities was conducted to identify an optimal institutional-wide approach to Research Data Management (RDM). We found, with a few notable exceptions, a lack of clear policies and processes across institutes and no harmonisation in the approaches taken. We identified limited methods in place to cater for the development of Research Data Management Plans (RDMPs) across different disciplines, project types and no identifiable business intelligence (BI) for auditing or oversight. When interviewed, many researchers were not aware of their institution’s RDM policy, whilst others did not understand how it was relevant to their research. It was also discovered that primary materials (PM), which are often directly linked to the effective management of research data, were not well covered. Additionally, it was unclear in understanding who was the data custodian responsible for overall oversight, and there was a lack of clear guidance on the roles and responsibilities of researchers and their supervisors. These findings indicate that institutions are at risk in terms of meeting regulatory requirements and managing data effectively and safely. In this paper, we outline an alternative approach focusing on RDM ‘Planning’ rather than on RDMPs themselves. We developed simple-to-understand guidance for researchers on the redeveloped RDM policy, which was implemented via an online ‘RDM+PM Checklist’ tool that guides researchers and students. Moreover, as it is a structured tool, it provides real-time business intelligence that can be used to measure how compliant the organisation is and ideally identify opportunities for continuous improvement

Seeps, springs and wetlands: San Juan Basin, Colorado. Social-ecological climate resilience project

Prepared for: North Centeral Climate Adaptation Science Center.Social-Ecological Climate Resilience Project, 2016.Includes bibliographical references

Social Ecological Climate Resilience Project - 2016

Prepared for: North Central Climate Science Center, Fort Collins, Colorado.February 2017.Includes bibliographical references.Climate change is already having impacts on nature, ecosystem services and people in southwestern Colorado and is likely to further alter our natural landscapes in the coming decades. Understanding the potential changes and developing adaptation strategies can help ensure that natural landscapes and human communities remain healthy in the face of a changing climate. An interdisciplinary team consisting of social, ecological and climate scientists developed an innovative climate planning framework and worked with the Social‐Ecological Climate Resilience Project (SECR) and other stakeholders in Colorado’s San Juan River watershed to develop adaptation strategies for two significant landscapes, pinyon juniper woodlands and seeps, springs, and wetland resources under three climate scenarios between 2035 and 2050. This report summarizes the planning framework and results for the pinyon‐juniper landscape (the seeps, springs and wetlands results will be provided separately). This framework can be utilized to develop strategies for other landscapes at local, state, and national scales. Diagrams, narrative scenarios, and maps that depict climate scenarios and the social‐ecological responses help us portray the climate impact in the face of an uncertain future. Interviews and focus group workshops with agency staff and stakeholders who are users of public lands identified several important opportunities to improve the adaptation planning process for developing strategies that meet both social and ecological needs. Planning techniques that include or directly relate to specific resources, such as water and forage, or to activities, such as recreation or grazing, provide avenues for engaging diverse stakeholders into the process. Utilizing the scenarios to understand the impacts to our social and ecological landscapes, three overarching landscape‐scale adaptation strategies were developed. Each of these strategies has a suite of potential actions required to reach a desired future condition. The three key strategies are: 1) identify and protect persistent ecosystems as refugia, 2) proactively manage for resilience, and 3) accept, assist, and allow for transformation in non‐climate refugia sites. If the framework and strategies from this project are adopted by the local community, including land managers, owners, and users, the climate change impacts can be reduced, allowing for a more sustainable human and natural landscape

Rotons and Quantum Evaporation from Superfluid 4He

The probability of evaporation induced by $R^+$ and $R^-$ rotons at the surface of superfluid helium is calculated using time dependent density functional theory. We consider excitation energies and incident angles such that phonons do not take part in the scattering process. We predict sizable evaporation rates, which originate entirely from quantum effects. Results for the atomic reflectivity and for the probability of the roton change-mode reflection are also presented.Comment: 11 pages, REVTEX, 3 figures available upon request or at http://anubis.science.unitn.it/~dalfovo/papers/papers.htm

Boundary spanning at the science–policy interface: the practitioners’ perspectives

Cultivating a more dynamic relationship between science and policy is essential for responding to complex social challenges such as sustainability. One approach to doing so is to “span the boundaries” between science and decision making and create a more comprehensive and inclusive knowledge exchange process. The exact definition and role of boundary spanning, however, can be nebulous. Indeed, boundary spanning often gets conflated and confused with other approaches to connecting science and policy, such as science communication, applied science, and advocacy, which can hinder progress in the field of boundary spanning. To help overcome this, in this perspective, we present the outcomes from a recent workshop of boundary-spanning practitioners gathered to (1) articulate a definition of what it means to work at this interface (“boundary spanning”) and the types of activities it encompasses; (2) present a value proposition of these efforts to build better relationships between science and policy; and (3) identify opportunities to more effectively mainstream boundary-spanning activities. Drawing on our collective experiences, we suggest that boundary spanning has the potential to increase the efficiency by which useful research is produced, foster the capacity to absorb new evidence and perspectives into sustainability decision-making, enhance research relevance for societal challenges, and open new policy windows. We provide examples from our work that illustrate this potential. By offering these propositions for the value of boundary spanning, we hope to encourage a more robust discussion of how to achieve evidence-informed decision-making for sustainability

Putting the pieces together: Integration for forest landscape restoration implementation

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The concept of forest landscape restoration (FLR) is being widely adopted around the globe by governmental, non-governmental agencies, and the private sector, all of whom see FLR as an approach that contributes to multiple global sustainability goals. Originally, FLR was designed with a clearly integrative dimension across sectors, stakeholders, space and time, and in particular across the natural and social sciences. Yet, in practice, this integration remains a challenge in many FLR efforts. Reflecting this lack of integration are the continued narrow sectoral and disciplinary approaches taken by forest restoration projects, often leading to marginalisation of the most vulnerable populations, including through land dispossessions. This article aims to assess what lessons can be learned from other associated fields of practice for FLR implementation. To do this, 35 scientists came together to review the key literature on these concepts to suggest relevant lessons and guidance for FLR. We explored the following large-scale land use frameworks or approaches: land sparing/land sharing, the landscape approach, agroecology, and socio-ecological systems. Also, to explore enabling conditions to promote integrated decision making, we reviewed the literature on understanding stakeholders and their motivations, tenure and property rights, polycentric governance, and integration of traditional and Western knowledge. We propose lessons and guidance for practitioners and policymakers on ways to improve integration in FLR planning and implementation. Our findings highlight the need for a change in decision-making processes for FLR, better understanding of stakeholder motivations and objectives for FLR, and balancing planning with flexibility to enhance social–ecological resilience.The Frank Jackson Foundatio

Understanding the Impacts of Research Synthesis

Research synthesis is the integration of existing knowledge and research findings pertinent to an issue. The aim of synthesis is to increase the generality and applicability of those findings and to develop new knowledge through the process of integration. Synthesis is promoted as an approach that deals with the challenge of öinformation overload’, delivering products that further our understanding of problems and distil relevant evidence for decision-making. However, despite the increasing prominence of synthesis efforts in the science and policy landscape, we know very little about the impacts these initiatives have on research, policy and practice and the assumptions underpinning how they will lead to change. This paper presents a framework for considering the conceptual, strategic, instrumental and network-based impacts of research synthesis on policy. This framework provides insight into the range of underlying assumptions and impacts on policy and practice from 10 case studies of research synthesis related to contemporary sustainability challenges. Findings suggest that research synthesis is having diverse impacts on research, policy and practice including creating a new understanding of problems, establishing new networks, and contributing to changes in policy and practice. These impacts emerged across a range of contexts, synthesis methods, assumptions and operating models. This suggests that there is no single öcorrect way’ to design research synthesis for impact, but rather a need to tailor the approach for the context of intended use

Call to action for global access to and harmonization of quality information of individual earth science datasets

Knowledge about the quality of data and metadata is important to support informed decisions on the (re)use of individual datasets and is an essential part of the ecosystem that supports open science. Quality assessments reflect the reliability and usability of data. They need to be consistently curated, fully traceable, and adequately documented, as these are crucial for sound decision- and policy-making efforts that rely on data. Quality assessments also need to be consistently represented and readily integrated across systems and tools to allow for improved sharing of information on quality at the dataset level for individual quality attribute or dimension. Although the need for assessing the quality of data and associated information is well recognized, methodologies for an evaluation framework and presentation of resultant quality information to end users may not have been comprehensively addressed within and across disciplines. Global interdisciplinary domain experts have come together to systematically explore needs, challenges and impacts of consistently curating and representing quality information through the entire lifecycle of a dataset. This paper describes the findings of that effort, argues the importance of sharing dataset quality information, calls for community action to develop practical guidelines, and outlines community recommendations for developing such guidelines. Practical guidelines will allow for global access to and harmonization of quality information at the level of individual Earth science datasets, which in turn will support open science