Engagement in Future Earth:
Supporting a Step-Change in Global
Science-Policy Interactions
Susanne C. Moser, Ph.D.
and Stanford University
AGU Annual Meeting 2014 • San Francisco • U54A Future Earth: Connecting Research and Responses to GEC

Overview of Presentation
• Overview of Future Earth
– How we got from global change research
programs to Future Earth
– Governance, goal, approach, vision
• Research to meet the challenges of the
Anthropocene
• Toward effective science-policy engagement
– A fundamental shift in approach
– Co-producing relevant knowledge

199619861980
1991
2001
and their partnership
International GEC research programmes since 1980

Converging towards a
new partnership and
single strategic
framework
Oct
2010
ICSU – ISSC
Visioning
2009
2009
2012
Science & Technology
Alliance for Global
Sustainability
Review of GEC
Programmes
2006-2008
Changing the international GEC research landscape
NEED FOR QUICKER AND MORE IMMEDIATE IMPACT
HENCE STRENGTHENED INTEGRATION,
STRONGER SOLUTIONS-ORIENTATION

International S&T Alliance
for Global Sustainability
Bringing together the co-sponsors and funders of
the existing GEC programmes

Merging IHDP, Diversitas, IGBP and the ESSP,
collaborating with WCRP to create
A global platform for international research on global
environmental change and sustainable development

Building on 20+ existing GEC projects/networks
calling on 60,000 + scientists worldwide
IHDP
WCRP
IGBP
ESSP
DIVERSITAS

Governing Council
(The Alliance)
Science and Engagement
Committees
Globally distributed Secretariat
with regional hubs
Governance

Future Earth seeks to build and connect global
knowledge to increase the impact of research,
to explore new development pathways, and to
find new ways to accelerate sustainable
development...
Objective

Approach
...by promoting a new type of science; new ways of
producing knowledge and making sure it gets used:
• Internationally collaborative,
• Integrated (interdisciplinary),
• Solutions-oriented (transdisciplinary, engaged)
research

Working globally
Developing inclusive agendas and involving multiple socio-
geographic perspectives, and approaches (international)
Working across disciplines and fields
Promoting the joint, reciprocal framing, design, execution and
application of research (inter- and cross-disciplinarity)
Working with society
Building open knowledge arenas in which researchers work with
decision makers, policy shapers, practitioners, as well as actors
from civil society and the private sector in the co-design and co-
production of knowledge, policy and practice (transdisciplinarity)
Approach
(cont.)

1. Challenges
Inspired and created ground-breaking interdisciplinary
science relevant to major global sustainability challenges
2. Outputs
Delivered products and services that our societal partners
need to achieve these challenges
3. Approaches
Pioneered approaches to co-design and co-produce solutions-
oriented science, knowledge and innovation for global sustainable
development
4. Capacities
Enabled and mobilised capacities to co-produce knowledge, across
cultural and social differences, geographies and generations
International, integrated, co-designed and
co-produced knowledge …. to deliver what?
― 2025 Vision

Eight complex challenges in the Anthropocene
• Deliver water, energy, and food for all, and manage the synergies
and trade-offs among them
• Decarbonise socio-economic systems to stabilise the climate
• Safeguard the terrestrial, freshwater and marine natural assets
underpinning human well-being
• Build healthy, resilient and productive cities
• Promote sustainable rural futures to feed rising and more affluent
populations
• Improve human health in relation to GEC
• Encourage sustainable consumption and
production patterns that are equitable
• Increase social resilience to future threats
Photo: Art installation by Robyn Woolston

Transformations
to Sustainability
Dynamic
Planet
Global
Development
Each challenge to draw on three
integrated research themes

Strategic Research Agenda 2014
A. Dynamic Planet
Observing and attributing change
Understanding processes, risks and thresholds
Projecting and predicting futures
B. Global Development
Meeting basic needs and overcoming inequalities
Governing sustainable development
Managing growth, synergies and trade-offs
C. Transformations to sustainability
Understanding and evaluating transformations
Identifying and promoting sustainable behaviours
Transforming development pathways
62
priorities

Lubchenco (1998)
‘…a commitment of on the part of all scientists to
devote their energies and talents to the most pressing
problems of the day’
Toward a More Engaged Science (1)

Gibbons (1994, 1999), Nowotny et al, (2001)
• Reliable knowledge to socially-robust
knowledge
• Science produced in open systems of
knowledge production (the agora)
• Uncertainty
Toward a More Engaged Science (2)
Source: Gibbons (1999) Nature

• Greater understanding of and
engagement with science
• Improved relationships between
knowledge producers and users
• Increased usefulness and use of
information
(while doing interesting science)
• Better decisions and outcomes (i.e.
making a difference in the world)
Vision: What Do We Want to Achieve?
Photo:http://chuckieb123.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/changes-next-exit.gif

19
Changing Mental Models
The ‘linear model’ of science and society
Source: Stafford-Smith, Moser, et al., forthcoming

Slide courtesy of Frans Berkhout, adapted
Relevant knowledge exists as a
uniform, disembodied, closed system
Relevant knowledge exists in diverse,
open, situated systems
Two visions of knowledge systems

Co-Design and Co-Production of Knowledge
Source: Cowell et al, 2013

Fears and Concerns about Engagement
By Researchers
• Bias due to undue influence
on the research process
• Constriction on academic
freedom
• Public embarrassment
• Time commitment
• Frustration when policy-
relevant science is not used
(or misused)
By Practitioners
• Time commitment to a
process with uncertain
outcomes
• Public embarrassment
• Use of results in intended and
unintended ways
Source: Stafford-Smith, Moser, et al., forthcoming

Benefits of and Motivations for Engagement
By Researchers
• Wider attention to and
recognition of one's research
findings and expertise
• Contribution to problem
solving
• Access to data otherwise not
available
• Learning
By Practitioners
• A seat at the table
• Practical use of scientific
information for decision-
making
• Symbolic value of science in
support of policy-making
• Fostering innovation,
leadership and competitive
advantage
• Learning
Source: Stafford-Smith, Moser, et al., forthcoming

Understanding processes
of co-design and co-production
Source: Mauser et al., COSUST, 2013

‘…the collaborative process of bringing a
plurality of knowledge sources and types
together to address a defined problem and
build an integrated or systems-oriented
understanding of that problem.’
Armitage et al. (2011)
Co-Production

• Joint problem-framing
• Integration in knowledge
production and joint
knowledge dissemination
• Collaborative
experimenting and
learning
Key Phases in Co-Production
Photo: JamesBernatowicz

• Plurality (inclusivity, who?)
• Positioning (expertise, power)
• Incentives (benefits and costs to actors)
• Arrangements (experiments, mediating
relationships across boundaries, sustaining
interactions?)
• Outcomes (measurement, value)
Framing the “Collaborative Agora”
Slide adapted from Frans Berkhout

Website: www.futureearth.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/futureearth.org
Twitter: @FutureEarth
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