The European Research Council (ERC) aims to fund ground-breaking “bottom-up” research, with no predefined objectives or priorities. Moreover, evaluating panels are specifically instructed to evaluate proposals only based on scientific merits, and that societal impact is not an evaluation criterion. Nevertheless, projects that are originally unrelated to policy can produce results that are relevant for evidence-based policies and other public actions: public interest outcomes don’t necessarily come exclusively from research designed for societal purposes.

In this presentation, we will showcase some examples of ERC-funded projects in Earth Sciences that resulted in societal/policy actions. Topics covered range from physical oceanography, to hydrology, fire monitoring, or atmospheric pollution. We will explain how the researchers expanded their activities beyond academia to engage in Science for Policy and other public services. Indeed, to bridge this gap between research and public action, ERC grantees followed a variety of paths: they created their own consultancies, they were invited after posting a “tweet”, or they focused on journalism and outreach, to name a few. Featured projects are only a few examples of how curiosity-driven research may have an impact beyond academic knowledge. The paths to influencing public policy are many, and the extra effort is worthwhile to ensure policy actions are based on the most advanced research knowledge.

How to cite: Gallego Torres, D., Oppenheimer, J., Auvergne, N., Sielmann, J., and Jansen, E.: From Frontier Research to Public Action: Some examples from projects funded by the ERC, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-7902, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-7902, 2024.

In December 2023, the Helmholtz SynCom (Synthesis and Communication) traveled to Brussels with a delegation of selected scientists from the seven Helmholtz Earth and Environment Centres. This visit aimed at sharing current research findings and exchanging ideas with members of the European Parliament and other key stakeholders. The agenda included meetings with various entities such as the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS), the Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and members of the European Parliament Niklas Nienaß and Jutta Paulus. 

This trip proved to be a valuable opportunity to connect European environmental and climate policy with fundamental research. When communicating scientific research, the importance of selecting a format suitable for the targeted audience constituted a key point. We discuss the lessons learned, and needs for user-oriented innovative tools for public outreach and for supporting policy decisions. Our exchanges also covered the potential impact of ongoing and upcoming European projects, like satellite-based Earth Observation missions and Digital Twins of the Earth, in providing crucial data for science-backed regulations. Lastly, we address the challenges faced in policymaking and the hurdles in integrating scientific discoveries into political decisions: we report suggested possibilities of including policy makers or the consideration of current regulatory questions within research projects.

How to cite: Athanase, M., Beamish, A., Furst, S., Garcia-Garcia, A., Heidenreich, M., Joerss, H., Klose, M., Langhans, M., Mengen, D., and Sielemann, K.: ‘EEmeetsEP’ - Helmholtz Earth and Environment meets the European Parliament and Stakeholders in Brussels, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-5052, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-5052, 2024.

The Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina - founded in 1652 - is the world's oldest continuously existing academy of natural sciences and medicine and was appointed as the German National Academy of Sciences in 2008. In this capacity, the Leopoldina is commissioned with two major objectives: (1) representing the German scientific community internationally and (2) providing policymakers and the public with science-based advice. In recent years, the Leopoldina has increasingly focused on several aspects of the Earth System Science including climate change, sustainable development, biodiversity loss, and other challenges of the Anthropocene when human impact became a decisive force whose influence is drastically seen in all spheres of the planet.

The development of recommendations for adaptations of the scientific community in teaching and research as well as for societal change and policy-making are ongoing tasks of Leopoldina working groups. Such outcome of the Academy’s work is commonly communicated through rather classical channels such as statements, reports, fact sheets, workshops and symposia. In addition, interactive thematic websites are set up to enhance impact and increase audience.

One example is the Academy’s Report on Tomorrow’s Science: Earth System Science – Discovery, Diagnosis, and Solutions in Times of Global Change (2022). The report addresses German geosciences and the need to establish Earth System Science as the future operating framework for both education and research. Intense feedback from the community was received, which encouraged critical discussion. In addition, the main conclusions of the report were taken up by a private foundation, leading in substantial funding of new tenure-track junior professorships of Earth System Science at German universities starting this year. 

The challenges of the Anthropocene are currently being addressed by a new Leopoldina working group, which is attempting to incorporate interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches into a conceptual and structural framework in order to give new impetus to basic research and tackle societal challenges.

In summary, the further development of Earth system sciences as one of the key disciplines to provide understanding and solutions for urgent challenges of our planet’s present and future is in the focus of the Leopoldina activity. It calls for questioning traditional patterns of thinking in teaching and research and building sustainable structures that meet the major challenges. Only in this way is it possible to gain the necessary understanding of the changes in our living environment and to develop a corresponding science.

Reference

German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2022). Report on Tomorrow’s Science. Earth System Science – Discovery, Diagnosis, and Solutions in Times of Global Change. Leopoldina, Halle (Saale). 100 pp. https://doi.org/10.26164/leopoldina_03_00591

How to cite: Wetterich, S.: The Leopoldina’s perspective on community and policy advice and the case of Earth System Sciences, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-2119, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-2119, 2024.

A popular instrument of the Science-Policy Dialogue in political Berlin is the Parliamentary Evening. A Parliamentary Evening is a closed event for members of state parliaments and the German Bundestag, as well as employees of ministries. The goal is to facilitate information exchange between politics, administration, and science. Parliament members are invited both as speakers and guests. Discussions cover strategic and current issues within the intersection of politics, science, and society, as well as specific topics from various societal domains. The long-term objective of these events is to engage members of parliament and ministry staff in political and public projects, establish connections between parliamentarians and institutions, and enhance the knowledge of the participants. Last year, we organized a Parliamentary Evening on climate-resilient cities. Here, we report on the preparation, implementation, and follow-up of the event, as well as its impact and challenges.

How to cite: Lohkamp, M.: The Parliamentary Evening – a successful instrument of the Science-Policy Dialogue, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-20315, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-20315, 2024.

Achieving a successful science-policy dialogue requires aligning scientific data with the needs of decision-makers, ensuring political relevance, scientific expertise, and timeliness. Essential to this process are face-to-face interactions, which are crucial to develop a mutual understanding of the needs, requirements, and perspectives of both sides. This approach ensures that the information provided to policymakers is not only accurate but also actionable. Therefore, establishing a common understanding of the topic/issue and identifying mutual needs is central to this dialogue. Further, incorporating multiple perspectives and diverse expertise is key to increasing the credibility and impact of scientific information, providing a comprehensive view of complex issues.

In 2023, Helmholtz SynCom, together with scientists from the Helmholtz Centres AWI, GFZ, GEOMAR, and Hereon, has designed a parliamentary breakfast on the topic of sea level rise. This event aimed to inform political decision makers about the sources, impacts, and significance of sea level rise for Germany, with a further objective of fostering enduring relationships and promoting the dialogue between Helmholtz experts and federal politics. In summary, the parliamentary breakfast served as an effective instrument to initiate and strengthen the dialogue between science and politics. It also functioned as a platform to concisely present complex research topics, such as sea level rise, in a targeted manner from a holistic scientific perspective and to discuss the socio-political relevance and the current need for action with the responsible policymakers.

This case exemplifies how targeted, engaging events like parliamentary breakfasts can effectively bridge the gap between science and policy, fostering productive dialogues crucial for informed decision-making.

How to cite: Sielemann, Dr. K., Kirschmann, A., Brunner, Dr. A., and Heidenreich, M.: Integrating knowledge and establishing exchange on sea level rise to advance policies, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-1414, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-1414, 2024.

My PhD research project is titled ‘Multi-scale water resources planning in England and Wales’. Proposed by an industry leader, it evaluates the importance of scale in water resources planning since the recent establishment of regional and national planning alongside continuing company scale planning.

The project is part of the Water and Infrastructure Resilience Centre of Doctoral Training (WIRe CDT). The WIRe CDT’s close ties with industrial partners allows research projects such as mine to be applied in a real life setting which helps increase the impact and allows for skills development across industry and academia. Through this academic-industrial partnership I can benefit from observing the multi-scale planning process in practice.

Firstly, observations of the planning process draw from placements embedded in the national reconciliation processes (focused on aligning inter-regional schemes) and regional and company planning. Secondly, semi-structured interviews are being conducted with participants from across the water industry including regional planning leads, regulators, government officials, and water resources planners from water companies and consultancies. Thirdly, lessons learned workshops are being carried out with leads of the five regional planning groups (WRW, WRSE, WRE, WReN, & WCWRG) and regulators, with findings being presented to a national planning coordination group (RCG). Finally, policy and planning documents and academic literature are reviewed and analysed.

The data is collated and organised thematically to identify successes, failures, and recommendations in an iterative and collaborative way that follows the planning cycle as it evolves. Lessons learned through this transition to a multi-scale approach have been fed-back in real time to decision makers involved in strategic water resources planning in England and Wales.

The recommendations acknowledge the existing gaps and aim to start framing a collaborative, multi-scale model of planning that starts the process of building a better understanding of water requirements and strategies and managing issues as they arise, recognising that time and resourcing is needed to start building the relationships and levels of trust and confidence required for the long term goal of truly integrated management.

The emerging governance frameworks are attempting to establish and integrate multiple scales for the first time since the sixties in England and Wales, and ultimately will be judged to have succeeded if there is confidence and trust that the process delivered aligned plans across scales that meet long term water supply needs. Success or failure, lessons learned from this transition to a multi-scale approach may provide wider insight for decision makers involved in complex, long-term, multi-stakeholder decision making under uncertainty.

How to cite: Leonard, A., Amezaga, J., Blackwell, R., Lewis, E., and Kilsby, C.: Embedded research into collaborative multi-scale water resources planning in England and Wales, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-36, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-36, 2024.

Shaping and favoring informed-based decisions is a pivotal responsibility for both scientists and policymakers. Lessons and insights drawn from analyzing past disasters should be documented and shared transparently, using clear and inclusive language. This facilitates identification of challenges that policymakers might face in implementing such findings, especially obstacles arising from end-users, such as citizens.

The H2020 CORE EU project entails developing public guidance for enhancing community readiness for emergencies, covering pre-event and post event-response knowledge, and consolidating findings into an accessible online repository, extending availability of findings beyond the project's duration.

The CORE project is aimed at building a chain of trust, credibility and citizen engagement, providing guidance and recommendations for policymakers and society, and distilling the project's essence into actionable advice, starting from case studies from Europe and beyond (i.e. L’Aquila earthquake,  Italy (2009), Manchester arena bombing, UK (2017), Venkatapuran industrial accident, India  (2020), Aude region flash flooding, France  (2018), Great east Japan earthquake and tsunami, Japan  (2011), Jerusalem wildfire, Israel (2021), and finally Covid-19 pandemic (2020-2023)).

Among its main achievements, CORE has produced a standardized system  template able to analyse disaster case studies, with the aim of fostering transparency and uniformity in data collection and simplifying comparisons across diverse EU regions. Moreover, the project has issued recommendations to governments aimed at enhancing companies' resilience in the face of supply chain disruptions to reduce goods shortages. Additionally, a safety culture toolkit within the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) context was developed, catering to diverse stakeholders, such as citizens, public authorities, and practitioners.

Furthermore, the project provided guidance to policymakers on understanding the public’s consumer behaviours of available information, identifying information needs, and determining preferred communication channels. Specifically, the initiative from CORE included recommendations to counter misinformation both before, during, and after disastrous events.

This work has been supported by the CORE ("sCience and human factor for Resilient sociEty") project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101021746.

How to cite: Russo, R., Gargiulo, M. V., Capuano, P., Staniforth, A., Amaratunga, D., Ruggiero, A., Duca, G., Dallo, I., Komendatova, N., Scott, M., Bonnamour, M.-C., Amoroso, O., and Piotrowicz, W.: Bridging the gap between scientists and policymakers: the experience of the H2020 CORE project , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-10786, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-10786, 2024.

In recent years there is a growing focus, at both national and international levels, on increasing the impact of research and evidence for policy. For example, Ireland’s Civil Service Renewal 2030 Strategy includes 'Evidence-Informed Policy and Services' as one of three strategic themes. However, connecting researchers, research outputs and policy makers is not trivial. The lack of shared languages, timelines and priorities can result in missed opportunities, or worse, poorly informed policy.

There have been efforts by research funding agencies to focus research programmes on policy related topics or specify required outputs in funding call terms and conditions. However, this often yields impractical project outputs for policy makers, or results that are not effectively communicated to the relevant users. It can also deter researchers from some funding calls. 

Since 2015 Geological Survey Ireland has been developing and implementing a geothermal research programme to support the transition to renewable energy.  This has included shaping and funding research projects through national schemes and international co-funding programmes. Importantly, the outputs of these research projects have been used by Geological Survey Ireland to directly support the development of a new national geothermal energy framework, including government policy, developed by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Ireland’s policy statement for geothermal energy development was published by the Irish Government in July 2023.  This aims to promote the sustainable development of Ireland's geothermal resources in support of Ireland's climate action commitments by setting out;

• the preferred approach to regulation, and
• the scope of a strategy to promote the sustainable development of Ireland's geothermal resources to decarbonise the heating and cooling of buildings and for industrial uses and power generation.

The ongoing development of the regulations, further policy and the wider geothermal energy sector will require continued, bespoke research outputs and collaboration between academia, policy makers and expert national organisations and agencies.  This presentation will provide a case study for the type of collaborative work required to effecively integrate research into national policy. 

How to cite: Braiden, A. K., Blake, S., and Verbruggen, K.: Connecting geothermal energy research and policy – an example from Ireland, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-6524, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-6524, 2024.

In response to global net-zero transition pressures, Taiwan has adopted a multifaceted approach in its policies, expanding beyond energy efficiency to prioritize fairness and justice, especially for marginalized communities. This commitment is exemplified in the residential and commercial electricity-saving policy. Since 2012, the central government, in collaboration with municipal governments, has progressively introduced more comprehensive initiatives. Notably, "energy vulnerability care measures" were incorporated from the 2018 Municipal Energy Conservation Plan for the Residential and Commercial Sector, adapting to the changing landscape.

However, the conditions of energy vulnerability in Taiwan deviate from the conventional discourse on energy poverty, which typically addresses winter heating needs within liberalized electricity markets. Unique characteristics, such as low electricity prices and peak consumption for cooling in the summer, demand a distinct approach. Notably, energy-vulnerable care measures are situated within the broader framework of "energy conservation policies," with each county and city tasked with planning and executing these measures independently. In this context, bureaucratic inertia, rooted in a historical adherence to central directives, presents difficulties, especially in policies demanding local knowledge and frontline experience. The existing disparities in resources and capabilities among counties and cities further compound the challenges faced by local administrations.

This study aims to bridge the gap between the Western-centric discourse on energy poverty and the evaluation of vulnerable groups within Taiwan's net-zero transition. It seeks to comprehend the challenges faced by local governments in implementing these policies and aspires to enhance the well-being of energy-vulnerable groups. To achieve these goals, the researcher initially conducted a preliminary inventory by examining the energy-conservation reports of each county and city. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were undertaken to investigate not only the designation and implementation of these measures but also the horizontal and vertical obstacles to collaboration between local and central governments. The interviewees included project organizers, unit supervisors, commissioned companies, and their cooperative organizations.

The findings underscore a dual path dependence in the decentralized approach, revealing both vertical and horizontal dimensions. Local bureaucrats advocate for a mandatory policy coupled with central government guidance to provide clearer direction and momentum for implementation. Meanwhile, local governments tend to emulate measures from successful peers, even if these may not be the most critical for them. Despite hierarchical dominance in policy design within local government structures, interviews highlight that companies commissioned for implementation play a pivotal role. These entities exhibit a better understanding of the needs of vulnerable populations and policy shortcomings, which also makes local governments more inclined to rely on their expertise. The research advocates for a dual strategy: reinforcing top-down bureaucratic energy education while expanding bottom-up decision-making authority to empower relevant talents. Simultaneously, integrate energy-vulnerable care measures, currently under the environmental system, with the social welfare system. This alignment leverages existing trust foundations, integrating frontline knowledge and resources to effectively address energy vulnerability in Taiwan.

How to cite: Chen, Y.-H.: How can bureaucrats help change light bulbs? Evaluation of pro-poor energy initiatives in Taiwan, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-14177, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-14177, 2024.