Ad Hoc Activity on Science-Policy Interface
Progress report December2011- May 2012

for the Strategic Co-ordination Group of 10-11 May 2012

Authors: Frédérique Martini, Luisa Prista, Michel Schouppe, Andrea Tilche

1.RELEVANT KEY EVENTS IN THE PERIOD

  • Survey on priority research needs with CIS groups (continued)
  • Meeting of SPI correspondents on 16 February 2012
  • Workshop with the FP7 PSI-Connect project on 16 February 2012
  • Session focused on science-policy interface at the 6th WWF, Marseille,14 March 2012; where the CIS-SPI activity was presented to an international audience.

2.UPCOMING KEY EVENTS AND DEADLINES

  • Completion of research gaps analysis and prioritisation. Consolidated inputs by the CIS working groups expected for June 2012.

24 May 2012: session "Science in support of evidence-based environmental policy making" at the occasion of Green Week 2012, Brussels

  • Preparation of the 3rd SPI event in view of its holding in autumn 2012.
  • Preparation of the final CIS-SPI report

3.PROGRESS TOWARDS CIS WORKPROGRAMME DELIVERABLES

A first meeting of the SPI correspondents (nominated in each CIS working group in 2011) was held on 16 February 2012 at ONEMA. It gave the opportunity to meet face-to-face, to initiate a group spirit and to exchange on SPI practices within each of the groups. The meeting was found very useful by the SPI correspondents who expressed the wish of having regular meetings in such a configuration. Recommendations concerning the SPI network aiming to make it even more useful were expressed.

Activity 1 – Inventory of research and implementation needs from CIS groups

Following the nomination of SPI-correspondents, each CIS group has been asked to update the priority research needs based on the outcomes of the 1st SPI event, 2010. Even though some delay and diversity of input is noted, progress is generally satisfactory and should lead to prioritised research gaps by end of June 2012 (see task 2).

The ways of undertaking this task are diverse among the CIS groups but at the end the material generated is very useful for orienting the European research towards WFD implementation needs.

This exercise should probably be repeated regularly (every two years?) as it proved the benefit of offering these inputs to the research organisations and showed at the same time the advantages to get from a science-policy interface activity.

Activity 2 – Available research and research gaps

The overview of existing knowledge is ongoing to allow research gaps identification.

This is currently being complemented by the outputs of the further consultations of CIS groups on list of research needs, available research and research gaps based on the outcomes of the 1st CIS-SPI event.

The EurAqua network has started a mapping of national projects of EurAqua partners with CIS groups’ research needs. This is another stone brought to the task of research gaps identification.

By mid-2012 a list of research gaps is sought to be consolidated for communication later in 2012 to research networks and funding organisations.

Activity 3 – Improving transfer and usability of research outputs

A joint CIS-SPI and PSI-Connect workshop was held on 16 February 2012. It allowed discussing on good brokerage practices and instruments for water management including at the level of a river basin. This meeting was also the occasion to collect recommendations in view of the elaboration of a guidance framework on good dissemination practices and instruments for water management.

The FP7 cluster of SPI projects (WaterDiss, Step-Wise and STREAM) met on 23 January 2012 inBrussels (DG RTD). This meeting aimed in particular to push the projects to synergies in 2012 in support of SPI activity. Concrete SPI approaches arising from these projects have been proposed as 6th WWF solutions and will also be reported in the final activity report 2012 of the CIS-SPI activity

6th world water forum

The CIS-SPI activity has been involved in the preparation process for the 6thWorld Water Forum which was held in March 2012.CIS-SPI was involved in the Specific Europe Region Priority Targets (SERPT)10- Promote technology innovation, “Science - policy” interface and dialogue between researchers and water managers and in the Condition for Success 3 “enabling environment” the target 1 aiming at improving the delivery of research for water governance.

Some «solutions» were posted to the Forum platform for solutions among which the CIS-SPI activity and other related projects (WaterDiss, STREAM, STEP-WISE …).

During the Forumitself a session dedicated to “Science and Water Policy Interface: When Science and Innovation Meet Water Policy” allowed not only to present CIS-SPI to a large audience, but also to learn from existing practices and then to get some useful recommendations to consolidate a water science-policy interface.

Two main key messages were expressed:

  • It is needed to create water evidence-based policies
  • Dialogue between science and policy is not that obvious, keep on connecting them

Specifically SPI-oriented recommendations may be summarized as follows:

There’s a need for a “place” where to enable bottom up, top down, and cross-arena learning:

  • Involve citizens, scientists, and water managers at local and regional levels
  • Help integrate knowledge and experience from these levels up to a national level using people in institutions at this level
  • Look at other forums like carbon accounting, IPCC process, etc. for ideas to borrow

It’s recommended to invest in processes that will result in sustained knowledge transfer and in particular to create a regular science-policy interface platform where the ecosystem of interests have space to develop common language and strategies, creating inclusivity between research community, policy makers, funders, NGO/civil society, business and education institutions etc.

One flagship recommendation was:“To establish a networking platform providing the water policy sector with complete scientific information validated both by scientific and political sectors related to global water resources, needs and demands, and water management; such a platform would allow water managers to provide scientists with feedback on their needs for information. “

This recommendation should be tackled in an implementation process during the time before the 7th WWF in 2015.

4.NEXT STEPS

The final report of CIS-SPI 1st mandate is under elaboration.

Activity 1 – Inventory of research and implementation needs from CIS groups and Activity 2 – Available research and research gaps

A list of prioritised research gaps with relevance to the WFD will be finalised and disseminated to the relevant research programmes owners and managers (e.g. the European Commission,the Member States Research agencies, and the Joint Programming Initiative on Water challenges).

Activity 3 – Improving transfer and usability of research outputs

Toward dissemination practices

The CIS-SPI activity will further develop and promotegood practices regarding science-policy briefs bynational and EU research projects. With the help of the SPI correspondents, recommendations for better dissemination within and across the CIS groups will be developed and shared.

3rd SPI event

Preparation of the 3rd annual SPI event planned to be held in autumn 2012 has started. One option could be to focus on best practices to improve transfer and usability of research outputs.

Ecosystem services approach – proposed follow-up

The report of the 2nd SPI event (September 2011) on ecosystem services approach (ESA) will soon be published. The research needs identified on that occasion as well as the lessons learnt from the reported case studies contain recommendations for water managers. The executive summary is in annex.

The CIS-SPI activity has played its role by transferring the knowledge and identifying the needs for information or knowledge to boost the use of ecosystem services approach for WFD implementation. But at this stage the feedback of the workshop led to identify a need for a follow up activity aiming at explaining and structuring the links of ESA with WFD.

It appeared that the ESA promises to bring a number of opportunities for WFD implementation. It is for instance expected to provide responses on the WFD-economics requirements, the issue of exemptions justification and support the evaluation of the 1st RBMP round.

Investigate more a specific scientific topic is not in the mandate of CIS-SPI. But given the promising interest of ESA for the WFD, theCIS-SPI activity recommendsestablishing a dedicated activity located under the CIS umbrella aiming at strengthening knowledge and understanding of ecosystem services and their valuationfor the WFD implementation.

Linked to the WFD implementation challenges a work gathering experts both from science and policy backgrounds could be undertaken in order to elaborate some general guidelines and examples of good practices of ESA, and an assessment of information gaps and identification of future tasks for development of more detailed technical recommendations. This work could be timely linked to the Blueprint to safeguard Europe’s water with a view to delivering inputs to it and its follow-up.

This work wouldconsist of:

  • undertaking a review of existing knowledge and state of the art for ESA implementation
  • evaluating the applicability of the concept for WFD implementation
  • recommending some good practices for ESA implementation
  • supporting implementation of these guidelines in the second river basin management plans.

2012 green week

At the occasion of the 2012 Green week a session dedicated to 'Science in support of evidence-based environmental policy making'will be organised on 24 May. Some outcomes of the CIS-SPI activity will be presented. And reciprocally some recommendations for improvement should be gained.

EIP water

CIS-SPI is recognized as an activity allowing bridging science and policy for the interest of WFD implementation. In the frame of the European innovation partnership for water development, level of implication of CIS-SPI in the governing structure of EIP water is to be checked. This makes sense considering the focus of the activity on delivering operational tools and guidelines to water managers to implement the WFD.

K* conference

UNU-INWEH convened a conference in April 2012 dedicated to knowledge brokeringhttp://www.inweh.unu.edu/River/KnowledgeManagement/Kstar2012.htm

CIS-SPI had been invited to take part in this conference in a panel discussion focusing on knowledge brokerage involving government and policy makers.

This was a great opportunity to promote CIS-SPI and to gain experiences in this regard from non-European countries and organisations and connect with them to benefit to CIS-SPI reciprocally.

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