Assessing Stakeholder Needs for Effective Actionable Science

Principal Investigator

Gregg Garfin

Start Date

2017-09-01

End Date

2019-02-28

Release Date

2017

The Southwest Climate Science Center (SW CSC) aims to work in partnership with natural resource management communities, to understand and help meet their highest priority science information and product needs regarding climate and land changes. The recently completed Five-Year External Review of the SW CSC noted that the SW CSC could continue to improve its ability to deliver effective actionable science. The first step in this process is to assess stakeholder science needs and priorities more regularly and systematically, engaging with regional stakeholders more closely and effectively, garnering feedback and input from the Stakeholder Advisory Committee—to clearly articulate management priorities that inform the SW CSC’s science portfolio, fostering stronger relationships with stakeholders, and working more closely with stakeholders on communication and training in how to make use of SW CSC science to inform decisions. This project aims to conduct a structured rapid assessment of stakeholder science needs and priorities, perceptions regarding effective co-production of science, preferences on communication and engagement to improve the effectiveness of science-practitioner partnerships, and needs for training and extension to enhance the use of science information and products. The project team will use mixed social science methods to garner data for the assessment. Group listening sessions and one-on-one interviews will provide preliminary information on needs, and will inform the structure and content of a survey instrument. The online survey will garner a substantial amount of data, to refine understanding of science priorities, and learn about communication preferences. Focus groups will examine preferred modes of engagement to increase the effectiveness of science co-production and SW CSC-stakeholder partnerships. Project outputs will include: a synthesis report, with recommendations for stakeholder engagement process and science priorities; a guidebook documenting a repeatable and robust process for assessing stakeholder needs; and webinars to convey findings to stakeholder participants in the project. Projected outcomes include: increased understanding of SWCSC stakeholder science needs; enhanced capacity for the SWCSC to conduct future needs assessments; a foundation of relationships to seed a knowledge and learning network—with the goal of improving climate and land change information flows and increasing the use of scientific information to inform resource management decisions.

ScienceBase WMS

• National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers
• Southwest CASC