Developing environmental evidence-based policies

As environmental concerns continue to escalate, research must be translated effectively into public policy, says Dr Simon Gardner, who expands on the SKEP network’s mission to improve science-into-policy processes, and support the evidence-base for environmental regulation.

 Bringing together public sector organisations across the European Union, all focused on funding environmental research, SKEP has developed out of a recognition that not only are politicians and scientists radically different breeds, but that organisations which fail to build their policy positions on secure foundations are running huge risks. Based himself at the UK Environment Agency, Gardner says the SKEP network is operating to ensure that his – and other parallel organisations across Europe – maintain an objective, evidence-based approach to their work.

“Transparency is a key part of the decision-making process. More information is now available on the environment than ever before, and there is broader agreement on the key issues,” he explains, before going on to outline just why it is so important to improve the co-ordination of environmental research in Europe. “It’s very difficult to derive synergies and capitalise on best practice if you are working purely on the domestic level,” he points out. “Of course there will be different priorities in different Member States, but a lot of scientific policy-based work is process-oriented, so it really makes a lot of sense to look at European best practice in terms of how you manage science and how you communicate it. That’s one of the objectives of the SKEP network.”

“The areas that we’re looking at are: increasing the accuracy of monitoring capability, making potentially dramatic savings in operational expenditure and enabling step-changes in operations.” Continues Gardner: “We aim to engage with some important parallel initiatives, like IMPEL (European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law) and the Network of the Heads of European EPAs. The bigger European groups have very detailed work-planning processes in the implementation or policy domain. What we can provide is a co-ordinated European evidence-base to complement their work.”

Contact Dr Simon Gardner, Manager of the European and International Science team, and Coordinator of the SKEP research network, at simon.gardner@environment-agency.gov.uk

Published: Monday, 9th November 2009

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