In association with the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the  conference Open Science – From Policy to Practice, is held in Stockholm May 16-17.

Together with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre; Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre will together with other university representatives and decision makers share views and experiences on best practices for science informed decision making.

Gun Rudquist, Head of Policy at the Baltic Sea Centre.

"We know that researchers want to approach policy actors with their expertise, but they often find it hard to locate the channels to reach the right recipient", says Gun Rudquist, Head of Policy at the Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre and moderating the session on bridging the gap.  

Connecting experts and decision-makers improves the debate

As part of a policy team that works in the interface between marine environmental governance and science, Gun together with colleagues Ellen Bruno and Charles Berkow, focus on linking experts and research with on-going policy processes, in Sweden, in the EU and globally. This work is one example of how policy makers can use science to improve debates and policy decisions.

Ellen Bruno, Policy Analyst at the Baltic Sea Centre.

"Research that is presented in a policy adapted format that explains connections to various societal issues, requires a lot of work. But we see that it is both requested and appreciated by politicians, officials and stakeholder", says Ellen Bruno, Policy Analyst at the Baltic Sea Centre and speaker during the conference.

In the conference session Science for Policy making, several aspects of the science-policy interface will be discussed. What are the lessons learned from policy work such as the Baltic Sea Centres’, how does the European Commission work with science for policy and what opportunities and risks do we see in the policy-science interface?
 

Text: Isabell Stenson