Authors: Kelemen, Eszter;

The concept of science-policy interfaces (SPIs) has been attracting a growing interest both in theoretical and empirical research since its inception in the mid-2000s. SPIs can be understood as social processes of mutual relations and knowledge co-creation between policy-makers, scientists and other actors in the policy process which contribute to more robust policy decisions (van den Hove, 2007). Interactions between actors of the SPIs are facilitated by boundary organizations, showing large diversity in terms of whom they engage, what knowledge creation processes are developed, or which scales they operate at (Sarkki et al. 2020). In recent years, biodiversity focused SPIs are proliferating at various scales of decision-making, ranging from global (e.g. IPBES) to EU (e.g. Eklipse, OPPLA) and national level platforms.
Current crises affecting different dimensions of our lives - i.e. climate change, biodiversity loss, the socio-economic and health impacts of the pandemics, or the emergence of ‘alternative truths’ and the growing mistrust in science and political institutions - requires SPIs to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Strategic policy documents and scientific papers urge for transformative changes, including transformations in how politics and governance are enacted, and rethinking the role science and knowledge play in the policy process. Key aspects of the renewal of SPIs include, among others, the widening of their scope by collaboration between existing interfaces along horizontal topics (see e.g. the recent IPBES-IPCC report), and the broadening of the range of actors who participate (i.e. moving towards science-policy-society interfaces).
The objective of this workshop is to contextualize SPIs among these changing circumstances and discuss potential new pathways for SPIs which can genuinely contribute to transformational change.