Building Bridges at the Science-Stakeholder Interface: Towards Knowledge Exchange in Earth System Science

This book covers the approaches, applied methods and central participatory processes at the science-stakeholder interfaces embedded in the development of the "Earth System Knowledge Platform (ESKP)". The latter is an initiative of the German Helmholtz Association, synthesizing the expertise of the eight Helmholtz research institutions focusing on Earth System Sciences. The contributions showcase the approach of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) within the ESKP initiative. Central focus is placed on the question as to which knowledge transfer processes can be employed to foster meaningful approaches based on science-stakeholder dialogues, data products, and/or modelling. The authors suggest that the tools and approaches for enhancing the vital contributions of science to addressing societal challenges warrant further investigation and development

Evaluating knowledge transfer at the interface between science and society

In view of the global grand challenges, fundamental research institutions are increasingly being asked to provide context for the application of their research findings and to incorporate transdisciplinary forms of knowledge production. But how can the involvement of stakeholders from outside academia be captured and evaluated within the research process? And how can they be engaged in meaningful science-stakeholder dialogue? “Good” processes are a prerequisite for meeting these changing requirements and for ensuring a successful knowledge transfer at the interface between science and society

Stakeholder Perspectives on Opportunities and Challenges in Achieving Sustainable Growth of the Blue Economy in a Changing Climate

Coastal marine environments provide livelihoods as billions of people around the world depend greatly on sustainability efforts in the Blue Economy. In this study, we investigated how stakeholders from important Blue Economy sectors along the German North Sea coast perceive the impacts of climate change on their daily work life and the growth of the Blue Economy. In a two-stage approach we first conducted two stakeholder workshops with representatives from the regional sea food sector, science, NGOs and local authorities, in order to identify important issues linked to climate change affecting environment, society, economy and policy. In the second stage, we conducted semi-structured interviews with key knowledge holders from the Blue Economy, to evaluate and validate the most important issues identified during the first stage, and the impacts on the respective sectors. The workshop participants identified perceptible effects of climate change on their marine environment. Early career scientists showed that they possess a clear focus on measures for climate change adaptation, transdisciplinary approaches and knowledge transfer. The interviews revealed that the climate change effects could be perceived as both negative and positive, depending on the sector. Other issues, especially political decisions and developments are perceived to have a greater immediate impact on the Blue Economy than the slow progress of climate change effects. Additionally, increased human activities, in the form of new or intensified uses like marine renewable energy generation, have a greater influence and lead to conflicts between the Blue Economy sectors. Our study showed that economic and societal stakeholders in Germanys North Sea region are aware of climate change and already perceive its effects on their businesses. Synergies and conflicts between the sectors and political decisions might influence sustainable growth of the Blue Economy in highly contested regions, such as the North Sea basin, much stronger than the effects of climate change. This calls for a more flexible and adaptive approach to policymaking, taking into account the changing environmental, social and economic realities

Wissen Schafft Lebensraum - Unterauftrag Fokusgruppen und Sozio-ökonomische Begleitforschung

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte die mögliche Umsetzung und die dafür benötigten Steuerungsmechanismen und Instrumente für ein „Wissen Schafft Lebensraum“ (WSL) – Reallabor, welches den Aufbau und zur Etablierung nachhaltiger regionaler Lebensmittelwertschöpfungsketten in der Region Unterweser mit Bremerhaven als Oberzentrum als Kernziel hat. Mit qualitativen und quantitativen Methoden konnten erste Empfehlungen abgeleitet werden, welche als eine relative Bewertung entlang der gesamten Wirkungskette des WSL-Reallabores zu verstehen sind. Die möglichen Empfehlungen orientierten sich an den wissenschaftlichen Leitfragen für die Schaffung eines Reallabor und wurden in folgende Anwendungsmaßnahmen unterteilt: 1. Akteure und deren Interessensgewichtung 2. Beteiligungsgegenstand und –Ziele 3. Partizipationsprozesse 4. Erfolgsfaktoren Der Bericht enthält die Auswertung der Ergebnisse sowie Empfehlungen zu Akteurs-Auswahl und Stakeholder-Einbindung sowie Empfehlungen zum Ablauf der Partizipationsprozesse

Dissecting the Offshore Wind and Mariculture Multi-Use Discourse:A new Approach using targeted SWOT Analysis

Coastal seas around the world are under increasing anthropogenic pressures due to the rapid expansion of maritime industry and coastal urbanisation. Multi-use (MU) of ocean space, meaning the use of the same space by multiple resource users, has emerged as one strategy to address spatial conflicts resulting from an increasing use density. The proposed multi-use of offshore wind farms (OWF) and mariculture (MAQ) is one of the most-researched examples of such a potentially symbiotic relationship. Two decades of public and academic discourse have produced an abundance of research regarding various facets of this particular combination. Nevertheless, the latest research projects of the EUs Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme have identified a number of persistent barriers to continued multi-use development. The past and current public discourse has created a situation where technological readiness has outpaced societal readiness and the discussion is often complicated by the diversity of backgrounds and perceptions of the participants of this discourse. This study aims to dissect the common discourse on OWF and mariculture multi-use by utilising a targeted SWOT analysis approach based on stakeholder knowledge. This approach reveals two distinct narratives based around societal and economic considerations respectively. From this, we derive a set of tailor-made recommendations for policy makers and regulators as well as funding agencies, businesses and researchers

Identifying and evaluating successful processes in knowledge transfer projects: first lessons

Various societal systems around the globe have endorsed a scientific-technocratic approach to decision-making. This is not a novel observation, however, within this approach, issues such as “knowledge transfer”, “stakeholder engagement”, “participation” rank high. Thus, improving exchange and communication at the nexus of the science/policy interface has seen considerable attention over the course of the last decade. The creation of multiple web-based platforms, such as the Earth System Knowledge Platform (ESKP) of the Helmholtz Foundation, are a case in point. Even if beyond reproach in terms of political and somewhat equitable participation of society at large, these well intended initiatives may not lead necessary to well-informed and sustainable justified decision-making. Indeed, only a limited number of publications are available on the issue of what kind of “metrics of success” can be employed and how to chart the impact these efforts of stakeholder inclusion and forms of dialogue. We present here a first evaluation effort on natural science projects, which were conducted under the umbrella of the ESKP. We accompanied six projects over the course of the entire project cycle, all of which had explicit knowledge transfer components and stakeholder orientation. We conducted an ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of these research projects as well as various interviews, to assess progress, identify new success criteria for research as well as to understand how and in which way natural science scientists approach and engage with stakeholders outside of their direct academic sphere. First results of this ongoing assessment indicate that new types of output and corresponding success criteria classified to better describe and evaluate success must be developed on a case specific basis. This pertains especially to the normative question of what is success and for whom. It can be concluded from these first lesson that navigating between wishful thinking, empirical evidence and practical relevance is the challenge every knowledge platform faces

Disciplinary diversity in marine sciences: the urgent case for an integration of research

Recent events and trends in international relations are making it necessary for scientists to design their projects in ways that can integrate disciplinary perspectives and learn how to communicate their results in governance processes. Some examples of settings in which such skills would be needed are the debates about the political and legal relevance of the “Anthropocene” as a concept, the establishment and implementation of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the recent International Court of Justice’s decision on what constitutes “scientific purpose” under the Whaling Convention, and the ongoing international efforts to regulate deep seabed mining activities. These events reveal an acceleration of growing environmental, distributional, and geostrategic conflicts over ocean resources which are changing the character of marine research. For some time now marine sciences have recognized the interdependence of social and ecological systems and the cumulative effects of multiple environmental pressures. In addition, we observe that the relationship between science and policymaking is rapidly changing in a process which we refer to here as the internationalization of knowledge, and that scientific research activities and results are progressively being internationally contested. Altogether these developments constitute extrinsic constraints that render transcending disciplinary boundaries a conditio sine qua non for future marine research. Better comprehension of these trends and their implications may help us to understand marine science’s functioning in the near future, particularly the relationship between disciplines involve

Fishing within offshore wind farms in the North Sea:Stakeholder perspectives for multi-use from Scotland and Germany

Offshore wind power generation requires large areas of sea to accommodate its activities, with increasing claims for exclusive access. As a result, pressure is placed on other established maritime uses, such as commercial fisheries. The latter sector has often been taking a back seat in the thrust to move energy production offshore, thus leading to disagreements and conflicts among the different stakeholder groups. In recognition of the latter, there has been a growing international interest in exploring the combination of multiple maritime activities in the same area (multi-use; MU), including the re-instatement of fishing activities within, or in close proximity to, offshore wind farms (OWFs). We summarise local stakeholder perspectives from two sub-national case studies (East coast of Scotland and Germany's North Sea EEZ) to scope the feasibility of combining multiple uses of the sea, such as offshore wind farms and commercial fisheries. We combined a desk-based review with 15 semi-structured qualitative interviews with key knowledge holders from both industries, regulators, and academia to aggregate key results. Drivers, barriers and resulting effects (positive and negative) for potential multi-use of fisheries and OWFs are listed and ranked (57 factors in total). Factors are of economic, social, policy, legal, and technical nature. To date, in both case study areas, the offshore wind industry has shown little interest in multi-use solutions, unless clear added value is demonstrated and no risks to their operations are involved. In contrast, the commercial fishing sector is proactive towards multi-use projects and acts as a driving force for MU developments. We provide a range of management recommendations, based on stakeholder input, to support progress towards robust decision making in relation to multi-use solutions, including required policy and regulatory framework improvements, good practice guidance, empirical studies, capacity building of stakeholders and improvements of the consultation process. Our findings represent a comprehensive depiction of the current state and key stakeholder aspirations for multi-use solutions combining fisheries and OWFs. We believe that the pathways towards robust decision making in relation to multi-use solutions suggested here are transferable to other international locations

Making the UN Ocean Decade work? The potential for, and challenges of, transdisciplinary research and real‐world laboratories for building towards ocean solutions

1. Due to the strong interconnectedness between the ocean and our societies worldwide, improved ocean governance is essential for sustainable development in the context of the UN Ocean Decade. However, a multitude of different perspectives—ecological, societal, political, economic—and relations between these have to be understood and taken into consideration to foster transformative pathways towards marine sustainability. 2. A core challenge that we are facing is that the ‘right’ response to complex societal issues cannot be known beforehand as abilities to predict complex systems are limited. Consequently, societal transformation is necessarily a journey towards the unknown and therefore requires experimental approaches that must enable the involvement of everyone with stakes in the future of our marine environment and its resources. 3. A promising transdisciplinary research method that fulfils both criteria—being participatory and experimental—are real-world laboratories. Here, we discuss how real-world labs can serve as an operational framework in the context of the Ocean Decade by facilitating and guiding successful knowledge exchange at the interface of science and society. The core element of real-world labs is transdisciplinary experimentation to jointly develop potential strategies leading to targeted real-world interventions, essential for achieving the proposed ‘Decade Outcomes’. 4. The authors specifically illustrate how deploying the concept of real-world labs can be advantageous when having to deal with multiple, overlapping challenges in the context of ocean governance and the blue economy. 5. Altogether, we offer a first major contribution to synthesizing knowledge on the potentials of marine real-world labs, considering how they act as a way of exploring options for sustainable ocean futures. Indeed, in the marine context, real-world labs are still under-explored but are a tangible way for addressing the societal challenges of working towards sustainability transformations over the coming UN Ocean Decade and beyond.BMBF CREATEBMBF MariscoVolkswagen Foundation ‘Niedersächsisches Vorab’BMBF ‘Innovation and structural change—WIR!’Peer Reviewe