Logistics
Date: 22 March – 21 June 2022
Format: A series of training webinars ending with a hybrid stakeholder debate.
Background
The International Panel on Environmental History & Policy (EnvHist4P) is a global network of interdisciplinary scientists researching the relationship between past societies and their environmental history.
We are concerned in particular with past societal responses and adaptations to environmental stress, especially climatic change and epidemics. Our focus is on the Late Holocene, that is the last 3,000 years, the most recent period of human history, during which the first complex modern civilisations and economic systems emerged, leading into socio-economic globalisation, the Industrial Revolution and the onset of the Anthropocene.
Since at least the 1960s, environmental historians have been amassing evidence and gaining insights into past human interactions with climate and the ecosystems we formed part of over the course of history, from antiquity to the present day.
Description
Our learn-and-debate series is intended to facilitate and give momentum to this process. We will provide the environmental history community with the basic understanding of the ways by which science and policy interact, in particular in the European context, helping individuals and groups to engage in the policy making process.
Who should attend?
Our series is designed to offer knowledge that is necessary to step out of the academic silo and engage with stakeholders in the policy world. We therefore invite any scientists or humanists who feel this practical knowledge might be useful for their own policy outreach activities to join us and participate.
Format
Through a series of practical workshops and roundtable discussions, participants will be introduced to different policy actors and the process of policy engagement will be demystified. Channels for engagement will be explored, and researchers will leave equipped with the tools and practical skill-set to actively bridge their research and the policy community. The climax of our series is a hybrid event in Berlin, which will feature lightning talks on possible policy lessons by invited environmental historians, and a feedback debate with policy stakeholders.
Organizers
This series is a collaboration between the academic collectives Historians for Future, Climate Change and History Research Inititative and the International Advisory Panel on Environmental History and Policy, supported by the Centre for Grand Strategy at King’s College London, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and Dickinson College, Pennsylvania.
Session details
22 March 2022: 15:00 (CET)
Introduction To Science For Policy
Chloe Hill, Policy Officer, European Geosciences Union (tbc)
This first webinar will help the participants in understanding the basic concepts of science for policy advice and the different roles the scientists can assume in the policy-development process. It will also present the key tools and strategies for scientists to get involved in policy making. In this way, this webinar will lay the foundations on which the following webinars will build.
> Register
5 April 2022: 15:00 (CET)
Science For Policy Communication
Vitalba Crivello, Policy Analyst at the European Science-Media Hub, STOA/DG EPRS, European Parliament
Vitalba Crivello will talk about the experience of the European Science-Media Hub, the platform of the European Parliament communicating sound science to the public. The Hub brings together scientists and media makers to work in an open, collaborative way, notably producing evidence-based information to engage with citizens and other ‘users’ of scientific data/results/approaches. On the basis of this experience, Vitalba will offer some examples and draw some conclusions on how to successfully communicate science for policy, with a special attention to environmental topics.
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19 April 2022: 15:00 (CET)
Engaging With Government: History As Part Of Policy Making
Prof Philip Murphy, History and Policy Group, UK
In 2002, a group of scholars established History & Policy, a network of academic historians dedicated to the principle that access to historical knowledge and expertise can make for better policy-making. The current director of History & Policy, Philip Murphy, explores this relationship and its implications for the ways academics interact with government. What are the incentives for historians to engage with governments? Conversely, with a rapid turn-around in staff and the move to digital communication, the challenge for departments in preserving and accessing ‘institutional memory’ is greater than ever. Yet the pressures of contemporary policy-making leave officials with little time to absorb conventional historical outputs. How can and should these outputs be repurposed to make them more policy-relevant? And finally, what are the implications of the rise of populism and the resurgence of ‘culture wars’ for the relationship between historians, politics and the state?
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3 May 2022: 15:00 (CET)
The Key Role Of The European Parliament Intergroup On ‘Climate Change, Biodiversity & Sustainable Development’ (Ccbsd) In Bridging The Science-Policy Nexus
Ilias Grampas, Deputy Director, European Bureau for Conservation and Development (EBCD)
Recognizing that a sustainable world needs to ensure human well-being, nature protection and economic prosperity for present and future generations, the European Parliament Intergroup on “Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development” aims to look into solutions and opportunities linked with today’s and tomorrow’s environmental and socio-economic challenges, as well as to guide the development and implementation of coherent sustainable policies based on scientific evidence. Therefore, this session will focus on the mission, vision and key priorities of the European Parliament Intergroup on “Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development”, as a multi-stakeholder platform of dialogue, which brings together Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from all political groups and Parliamentary Committees with representatives of the European Commission, Presidency of the Council of the EU, Member States and key stakeholders, such as NGOs, private sector and industry representatives, scientists, experts, and civil society.
> Register
17 May 2022: 15:00(CET)
Science For Policy Ecosystems In The Eu And Its Member States: Policies, Institutions, And Competences
Kristian Krieger, Policy Analyst, Unit: “Knowledge for Policy: Concepts and Methods”, European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Kristian Krieger will introduce the concept of a science for policy ecosystem to capture science advisory norms, processes, structures, and practices at EU and national levels more comprehensively. On this basis, he will elaborate on the JRC’s activities to strengthen and connect such ecosystems across Europe and identify opportunities for individual researchers/research groups to connect their research to these ecosystems and policymaking processes.
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31 May 2022: 15:00 (CET)
Mapping Science-For-Policy Ecosystems In Europe And Germany
Irene Broer, Leibnitz Institute for Media Research – Hans Bredow Institute, Germany
How does scientific expertise make its way into policy decisions? In this webinar, we present and compare existing science-for-policy mechanisms in Europe, before taking a deep-dive into Germany’s multilevel ecosystem. The participants will gain insight into different types of science-for-policy mechanisms ranging from ad-hoc crisis teams to formalized and long-term advisory bodies.
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14 June 2022: 15:00 (CET)
Environmental History & Policy: Learning From Past Pandemics And Climate Crises
Live event in Berlin with hybrid participation
Lightning talks by environmental historians: Eleonora Rohland (Uni Bielefeld), Gerrit Schenk (TU Darmstadt), Martin Bauch (GWZO Leipzig), Adam Izdebski (MPI SHH Jena)
Stakeholder debate with the participation of (among others):
Jürg Luterbacher, Director for Science & Innovation, World Meteorological Organisation, United Nations
Mirjam Shabafrouz, Federal Agency for Civic Education (BPB), Germany
> Registrations will open at a later date
Visit the website for more information: https://envhist4p.shh.mpg.de/?page_id=432
21 June 2022: 15:00 (CET)
Closing Discussion Among Webinar Participants
Chair: Adam Izdebski, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Germany
At this additional informal online meeting, we would like to create space for the participants to share their feedback on the series and ideas for possible future activities.
> Registrations will open at a later date
Visit the website for more information: https://envhist4p.shh.mpg.de/?page_id=432
More information
For more information, visit the website here: https://envhist4p.shh.mpg.de/?page_id=432