Challenges for credibility, relevance and legitimacy in a Network of Knowledge
The consultations in the project led to the identification of five essential issues for developing a credible, relevant and legitimate NoK that fulfils the four functions described above: quality assurance; data standards and sharing; connecting, motivating and acknowledging the knowledge holders and requesters involved; communication; and capacity building. All these issues are strongly interlinked and must be addressed in an integrated manner. Many of them are, of course, a challenge to SPIs in general.
Quality assurance in SPIs covers a broad range of issues, some of them directly tied to scientific work (see also next section on data standards) and others related to the SPI process, where quality stands for effective and transparent procedures and ensures credibility. The NoK approach enables independent internal and external feedback loops and other means for evaluating and increasing quality. Particularly for conflicting issues, linking the different perspectives into a common process can help to bring more knowledge into the decision-making process and make the underlying conflicts explicit.
The NoK approach includes an explicit choice of the best available methodologies to compile and assess the available evidence for addressing requests from policy (see KNEU-Team
2014, Pullin et al.
2016). This ranges from evidence-focused methodologies such as systematic reviews to different forms of moderated expert consultations to transdisciplinary approaches such as collaborative adaptive management, with the possibility to combine these approaches depending on the needs identified (Pullin et al.
2016; Schindler et al.
2016a). The choice process will be made transparent through pre-established protocols that lay out the circumstances under which each the methods is recommended, as well as their strengths and limitations, and required type of information, expert involvement and resources.
Despite recent improvements (e.g. by GBIF, LifeWatch, LTER and EUBON/GEOBON), answering questions and producing knowledge that require interpretation of biodiversity data is still hampered by lack of harmonized, reliable and publicly-accessible databases. The lack of agreement in relatively simple matters, such as the use of standardized protocols, can result in multiple experts disagreeing with each other already at the data integration level (Bendix et al.
2012; Enke et al.
2012). This is a serious constraint to transparent and easy-to-understand communication with requesters at a later stage of knowledge compilation, and may weaken the credibility of the information provided by the scientific community. The reluctance of many researchers to openly share data often arises from complex issues like confidentiality, ownership (data owners often do not agree to publish their data due to legal issues), or data sensitivity (red list data for instance), and may severely hinder the timely and constant integration of new data into shared databases (Moritz et al.
2011; Enke et al.
2012). This underlying challenge cannot be tackled directly by the NoK, but rather by specialized processes in science like GBIF, LifeWatch, LTER and GEOBON, or through specific agreements between science, environmental agencies (or other continuously working institutions), and sometimes society (e.g. in the context of citizen science). It will, however, remain an obstacle for better informed policy-making in both science as well as in policy, and preclude the use of data-demanding methods to analyze existing knowledge (Wetzel et al.
2015).
In today’s science as well as in the policy world, lack of time is the most crucial constraint for getting engaged in interface activities (Nesshöver et al.
2013; Sarkki et al.
2013). Many experts raised this concern during the consultations. At the same time, participation reached a critical mass in many processes, as soon as potential benefits (for a “higher” target such as better biodiversity policy, as well as personal targets such as learning via involvement) became clear and experts were addressed directly (Carmen et al.
2015; Schindler et al.
2016a). Nonetheless, acknowledgment of science-policy activities of experts in their institutions and by funders and policy are still seen as a challenge and must be strengthened as one aspect of expert performance in order to raise the profile and acceptance of such work (Carmen et al.
2015).
The main challenge is then to connect enough knowledge holders for a comprehensive representation of the existing disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge on a topic that is going to be tackled. To enhance credibility and legitimacy, the NoK will have to work in a complementary process of networking people with excellent skills and the latest knowledge as well as integrating different types of knowledge. Involving well-known and respected contributors will improve visibility and credibility, but the processes should incorporate mechanisms to remain open to new, less experienced contributors to ensure capacity building (see below). In addition, continuity in the commitment from the community of interest will be required to ensure long-term functioning of the mechanism.
A NoK approach—through explicitly reaching out to the whole community across knowledge types, disciplines, regions and backgrounds—has a clear added value with regard to credibility, relevance and legitimacy as it can reach out in a timely and efficient manner to relevant expertise and enables broader participation in terms of knowledge types and sources (Carmen et al.
2015). This is rarely the case in many science-policy approaches that restrict the input to certain groups, institutions or individuals, such as most consultancy contracts and research projects. Of course, there is a trade-off between enlarging the potential relevant expertise and ensuring credibility through a restricted number of high-level experts. In specific situations, the credibility of the knowledge produced relies more predominantly on direct evidence than on perceived inclusion of a wider science or policy context. The added value of the NoK lies in the open and transparent way in which such trade-offs are addressed and that the choice is made in relation to the needs and requirements of the requesters.
Meet the challenges outlined above will require a high level of effective two-way communication on issues such as policy needs, processes of the NoK, data and methodologies. This is especially true at the initial phases of the NoK, when the approach and its procedures (Fig.
1) will be new to most actors, particularly since it requires a high level of understanding of the different processes and does not always follow “classical” approaches of science-policy interactions. Communications in the NoK will need to balance the needs of communicating results, engaging people and fostering capacity building.
This holds especially true as many biodiversity and ecosystem service related issues are cross-sectoral issues (Tittensor et al. 2014), so a continuous broad outreach is needed to engage and make aware the relevant knowledge holders and requesters from all areas, including other policy sectors (e.g., agriculture, forestry, fisheries, climate and transport, finance) as well as different scientific disciplines (Jolibert and Wesselink
2012; Young et al.
2014). Here, a major challenge lies in the translation of problems to be tackled and the results achieved into the language and mindset of those sectors and disciplines. This will require dialogue with the policy ‘requesters’ to understand their needs in terms of process and outputs from the NoK, which appears to be one of the biggest challenge as the trial assessments have shown (Schindler et al.
2016a).
Building capacity at the science-policy interface, especially through the networking function, involves developing understanding, fostering trust, creating new links, applying new skills and developing shared knowledge. Hence, it is a process that may influence attitudes, behaviors and actions of individuals, institutions and the system as a whole (Cash et al.
2003; van den Hove
2007). Skills such as facilitation and conflict resolution may be crucial to implementing the NoK processes and should be a key component of its capacity building program (Nesshöver et al.
2013). Training in understanding the policy- and decision-making processes are also essential for experts getting involved in NoK processes—particularly those originating from the scientific community, where major misunderstandings still prevail regarding policy processes (Pielke
2007).
Expert groups working in the NoK will include a wide range of perspectives, skills, expertise and knowledge sources from the start, requiring the building of capacities of experts facing different languages, theories and methodologies being from social sciences or natural sciences (see for example Tengö et al.
2014). A key challenge of the NoK will be to ensure the building of some common grounds and trust among all experts and actors engaged in the processes. As such, it will require support not only from funders, but also strengthening links with all kinds of knowledge hubs—organisations, networks and initiatives—at both the European and the national levels. A process of reflection and learning must be central to the NoK to help build bridges and reduce gaps between groups and move ever closer to collaborative working and information sharing (Carmen et al.
2015).