Knowledge Brokerage for Sustainable Development : Innovative Tools for Increasing Research Impact and Evidence-Based Policy-Making

Scientists and policy makers follow different rationalities and sustainable development raises significant challenges for both science and the political system. For science it represents a complex set of interrelated questions, transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries and requiring transdisciplinary approaches and methodologies to provide systemic insights to deal with high levels of complexity. For the political system, sustainable development represents a highly complex set of interrelated policy issues transcending traditional sectoral policy boundaries. Sustainable development therefore presents significant challenges to the political system, with new structures and processes for policy integration, and stakeholder participation with knowledge in high demand. Knowledge brokerage has the potential to help manage these challenges simultaneously in both social systems. Knowledge Brokerage for Sustainable Development presents a selection of innovative tools to enhance the connectivity of research and policy making on sustainable development issues. It summarizes the experiences of twelve EU funded projects and provides the first systematic analysis of knowledge brokerage experiences for sustainable development. It supports networking among the developers and users of knowledge brokerage systems with the aim of making their experience better known to the different communities involved.