The Workshop "Raising awareness and building capacity for science-based policy-making" will take place on 8 - 9 October 2019 in Reykjavik, Iceland, organized by the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), the German Arctic Office of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), and the Icelandic Center for Research (RANNIS), in cooperation with the German Embassy in Reykjavik and supported by the German Federal Foreign Office. 

The dialogue between scientists and policy-makers is crucial to ensure that climate and environmental policies are based on sound scientific knowledge. Therefore, the knowledge transfer from science to policy plays a major role in modern science and will be even more important in the future. Exposing researchers to the science-policy-interface is particularly important in an early career stage to develop an understanding of the tools and processes involved and a natural collaboration beyond science. Policy needs scientists who have consolidated knowledge and give objective and independent advice.

Communicating scientific information to policy-makers requires certain skills in translating the scientific information into information that can be understood by policy makers or non-scientists, as scientists and policy-makers very often speak different “languages”. This workshop aims to provide training to early career researchers to raise awareness of the need to communicate beyond the research community, to introduce new career paths for early career researchers outside academia and to lower “mental barriers” in the transition between politics and science.

The agenda will include invited introductory keynote presentations by both policy-makers and scientists experienced in knowledge transfer. Two breakout groups led by invited mentors will discuss specific elements of the science-policy-interface in more detail. 

Confirmed keynote speakers are Lilja Dögg Alfredsdottir, Icelandic Minister for Science and Culture, Henry Burgess, Head of the UK NERC Arctic Office and Nicole Biebow, EU-PolarNet Project Manager.

Find more information regarding the application process on the APECS website.