Engaging science-policy-society dialogue on European scale: the example of EKLIPSE Science Cafes

Abstract

To achieve biodiversity conservation targets comprehensively, and to support transparent, democratic and legitimate EU biodiversity policy, there is a growing need and momentum to engage society as a whole to develop biodiversity and ecosystem service policies. For example, citizen science efforts made in environmental sciences have generally been innovative and efficient at harnessing the knowledge and know-how of citizens in observations and data gathering. In addition, different means to encourage public participation in policy development have been presented and implemented both in real life and online, including a variety of especially asynchronous online mechanisms for both spreading information and awareness and promoting public deliberation on EU policy matters. Despite these developments, the involvement and role of the wider public in deliberating on policy matters regarding biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU level has been rather inconsistent to date. Therefore, more systematic, meaningful and inclusive interplays between science, policy and society need to be developed. Towards this aim, we evaluate the potential of online science cafés to narrow the gap between science, policy and society, strengthen the interface of them, and encourage active and effective public participation in biodiversity policy on the EU scale. Developing social engagement via online science cafés is a manifold process; technical usability, participant’s previous knowledge, past discussions and the framing of the topic and the implicit and explicit objectives and outcomes all relate to the meaningfulness and quality of the discussion and the commitment of the participants.

Keywords: societal engagement, online participation, science café, EU biodiversity and ecosystem services, policy development, science-policy-society interface, transnational discussion