Knowledge Brokerage for Sustainable Development

Books on knowledge brokerage are often, ironically, difficult to read. This book is a wonderful - and instantly essential - exception to that rule. It is an unusually lucid and readable account that combines formats (interviews, articles), perspectives (insider accounts, external analyses), and topic areas, providing an encyclopaedic review of current practice in Europe as well as a treasure trove of tools, methods, advice, case studies, project reports, and more. If you acquire just one book on knowledge brokerage for your library, make it this one. In fact, it may be the only book you need. -- Alan AtKisson, CEO AtKisson, Inc., and former President, Balaton Group This book is a rich and valuable contribution to policy making in the context of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. It supports the scientific, administrative and policy-making communities in the formation of the key questions and answers, and in bringing these sectors together to co-operate in making sustainable development a reality and to co-evolve by mutual learning. -- Jorg Mayer-Ries, German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety Translating the common vision of the Sustainable Development Goals and the process that created them into policy and practice is a challenge and opportunity of historic proportions. This book offers an open-eyed perspective on why knowledge brokerage involving science and policy is critical for the journey ahead, the key design choices that will need to be made and how they can be operationalized. Looking back in 2030, it will be viewed as a pivotal contribution. -- Laszlo Pinter, Professor at CEU, senior fellow at IISD and policy advisor of the World Bank, the OECD, UNEP, UNDP, UNIDO and the Asia-Europe Foundation We live in an era when rapid and dramatic changes are impacting people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnerships. This book highlights what promotes and what hinders knowledge transfer in decision making for sustainable development. It makes an important contribution at a time when the value of knowledge in decision making is being challenged in many ways. -- Riitta Oksanen, President of the European Evaluation Society Knowledge Brokerage in the field of sustainable development goes beyond linking research with innovation communities; it develops concepts, approaches and tools for linking research with policy and management communities. This book offers a wealth of insights from a range of knowledge brokerage projects and experiences. Right to the point and extremely useful. -- Sigrid Stagl, Head of the Institute for Ecological Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business This book provides the first systematic analysis of knowledge brokerage experiences for sustainable development. It will help researchers to increase their impacts and support evidence-based policy making in Europe and beyond. -- Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger, Rector of Vienna University of Economics and Business Sustainable development requires innovative forms of policy making and multi-disciplinary research efforts, and more effective knowledge brokerage between the two. This books highlights the complex forms that knowledge brokerage can take and what powers and paradigms are involved in the process. It goes on to provide extensive, well-researched evidence-based conclusions. -- Professor Louise O. Fresco, President of Wageningen University and Research The EU has invested more than any other body in funding research that is relevant for practice and policy making. This book explains how the science--policy interface needs to evolve so that science produces value for society, reliably. Research funders take note: a milestone! -- R. Andreas Kraemer, Founder & Director Emeritus of the Ecologic Institute and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies Results of EU projects are often spread across different projects, while any synthesis and translation into policy conclusions are missing. This book shows how that can work and how co-creation of knowledge can have impacts on policy as well as on science, technology and innovation. This approach may inspire the next EU Framework Programme beyond 2020. -- Manfred Horvat, Honorary Professor, Vienna University of Technology, European and International Research and Technology Cooperation

This is the first study exploring how knowledge brokerage has the potential to support sustainable development across political and scientific systems. It presents a selection of innovative and practical tools to enhance the connectivity of research and policy-making.

The menace of a post-truth era challenges conventional policy-making and science. Instead of fighting an uphill battle against populist solutions, those involved in both policy-making and science have to find innovative ways to collaborate, and make use of the vast amounts of knowledge that are already available. Knowledge brokerage, in this context, is more than a simple question-and-answer game: it is a process of co-creating and re-framing knowledge. In addition, Knowledge brokerage has to deal with trade-offs and ambiguities, as well as world-views, cultures and the preferences of stakeholder groups.

This book is the first in-depth exploration of how knowledge brokerage has the potential to help manage the challenges of sustainable development across political and scientific systems. It presents a selection of innovative and practical tools to enhance the connectivity of research and policy-making on sustainable development issues. In doing so, this book will be an essential publication in research and policy-making. It supports networking among the developers and users of knowledge brokerage systems and will make their experience better known to the different communities involved.

The book presents interviews with leading policymakers and researchers such as former EU Commissioner Franz Fischler, Robert-Jan Smits (Director-General of Research and Innovation at the EC), Uwe Schneidewind (President of the Wuppertal Institute), and Leida Rijnhout (European Environmental Bureau). It also provides insights into eleven EU funded projects dealing with different approaches of Knowledge Brokerage for Sustainable Development.