Arctic Frontiers Side Event – From science to policy

A bit before 9:00, the meeting room was packed, and representatives of policy and science were on the stage. From the policy side Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s Minister of climate and environment, and Marie-Anne Coninsx, EU’s first ambassador for the Arctic (2017–2019) joined. The science side was represented by Nansen Legacy postdoc Alun Jones as well as Professor Lise Øvreås, who attended both as Nansen Legacy member and in the capacity of the president of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Tor Eldevik, Nansen Legacy’s Co-PI, was chairing the lively discussion, and entrained the audience to challenge the panelists. 

It was reassuring to learn how both Barth Eide and Coninsx find their policy domain, including the Arctic, to be guided by science (even if political action tends to be slow). Central measures in transferring science to policy seem to be massive and established community efforts such as the IPCC and a collective display of ongoing research at the Arctic Science Ministerials (more background on this topic here.

Tor challenged the panel throughout the session to provide suggestions how emerging scientist, such as Alun, can be better equipped to make a mark on informed policy making, but the answer by the politicians remained a little bit of a puzzle (at least to Tor). A Danish journalist/lecturer in the audience however made the good point. In his opinion informed media may have (potentially under-explored) key role as a mediator in the knowledge transfer from science to policy.