An institutional approach to translating and synthesising science for different audiences

The Met Office Hadley Centre has a dedicated stategic area, known as Knowledge Integration, which focuses on translating and communicating science from across its research. Made up of people with expertise across both science and communications, the team works directly with scientists and a wide variety of end users to co-create tailored outputs for specific needs. These outputs synthesise information from many different programmes of work from both the Met Office, as well as from a range of partners both across the UK and internationally . This includes working with collaborators across multiple disciplines, for example taking on best practice from social science approaches to communication (and the team is also working to help contribute to that evidence base). The outputs take the form of anything from written policy briefs, to infographics, to workshops and teach-ins – with the final package of media determined by the needs and preferences of users.

While the work of the team is primarily focused at policy and decision-making audiences, they provide support to those who work directly with the media and public by sharing their work and expertise to ensure scientific rigour and credibility. Our work also feeds into a programme of education and outreach which reaches a large and diverse audience.

In this session members of the Knowledge Integration team will explain how they work with scientists and end-users to maximise the potential value and impact of research findings. We will talk about the role we play at an institutional level, how we operate, who we work with, how we learn lessons to keep learning and evolving, and how we monitor the impact of what we do.