The need of local and regional decision makers for credible, relevant, and unbiased information on climate change and the options for dealing with it is rapidly increasing. This presentation will outline a new experiment of the US government in providing such decision support services. Robin O'Malley, coordinator of the effort and an HKS graduate, is interested in challenging academics to work with the government to use the 8 regional replicates in the experiment as a foundation for critical evaluation of what makes such decision support structures effective.
The Department of the Interior and the US Geological Survey are developing a suite of eight regional centers intended to provide information to natural and cultural resource managers about the effects of climate change on these resources and about practices that can enable effective adaptation. Climate Science Centers (CSCs) are government-university collaboratives, whose agenda will be guided by the needs of the resource management community in the region. Each CSC will have a “stakeholder advisory committee” with representation from both resource managers (with “science needs”) and science providers (i.e., other research entities such as the USDA Forest Service Stations). This committee sets the substantive agenda for the Center and serves as a locus for science providers to collaborate/share/leverage their activities.
USGS is attempting to implement lessons learned about the interface between science and management/policy (e.g. NRC 2009). The enterprise is conceived of as, variously, a boundary organization or a translation function – “bridging the gap between science and management” – and the structure and expectations are intended to improve the targeting of science and its delivery in forms that are most useful to the implementing agencies.
The establishment of a new suite of enterprises dedicated to implementing smart science-management practices, with eight replicates, provides a unique opportunity for social science research involving the science-management/science-policy boundary. USGS is interested in exploring how this enterprise can be used to evaluate the various structures, practices, and strategies being put in place at the CSCs for their effectiveness in engaging key constituencies and for ensuring that their needs are effectively met.
Please RSVP to Lauren_Bloomberg@hks.harvard.edu by Thursday, January 26th. Seating is limited and will be restricted to those who RSVP.
Sponsored by the Environment and Natural Resources Program and the Sustainability Science Program at MR-CBG.
