Science Communications Manager Anne Liddon writes…
In many research programmes across the UK researchers are investigating the implications of environmental change for communities and the ways in which they are going to have to adapt. It’s a potential troubling question for everyone, particularly land managers and their advisers. So it’s just as well so many scientists are researching the theme of ecosystem services, investigating the range of goods that land provides, how they interrelate and the effects of environmental change upon those services. But we also know there is often a knowledge gap between the researchers and professional advisers who each bring knowledge to addressing this challenge.
Transferring
knowledge between research and practice sounds as though it should be straightforward
but real life it is always more complicated than that. We have made some advances. We know from
experience, that knowledge exchange can be a much more effective approach than
knowledge transfer. Involving
practitioners at an early stage enables the research to be more relevant in the
real world, and draws in a different, but equally valuable, kind of expertise. This kind of involvement is happening more
and more, but we can’t afford to be complacent, and we certainly aren’t
reaching all the parts that need to be reached.
Landbridge is one means of addressing this gap.
An
event in Birmingham on 18 June brings together some of those leading scientists
who have developed the ecosystems approach with land advisers and planners who
are working at the front line. The day
is intended to help land advisers to develop their knowledge of how the ecosystem approach could
be applied in their everyday practice, but it’s going to be a two-way
process. The researchers won’t be
lecturing – they will be engaging in discussion and knowledge exchange in an event that is shaped by
the participants. Afterwards the
experiences from the day will feed into a policy and practice note that we hope
will be useful for a whole range of land advisers, highlighting the challenges
and opportunities and giving practical guidance. As I write there are a few places left (email
Alister.Scott@bcu.ac.uk) but you will need
to be quick. I’m certainly looking
forward to it.
