IES Report: Transformative evidence-informed action

Over recent years, several critical opportunities and challenges have arisen for knowledge and the interface between science, the public, and policy. Increased opportunities for evidence sharing and knowledge exchange, both within academia and beyond research communities, have fostered a culture of evidence-informed decision making.

There are also challenges. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of science by governments became highly normalised, yet views of expertise became increasingly polarised. This is particularly stark for environmental policy, where decisions face a high degree of politicisation.

In 2023, the IES undertook a year-long horizon scanning and foresight project, which culminated in the publication of ‘Transforming the Planet: Our vision for the future of environmental science’. 

The IES has continued to work in support of that vision and the positive future it could help to achieve. With regards to knowledge, several key challenges emerged from our vision for the future:

1. The need for a breadth of perspectives across the environment sector
2. Challenges for consolidating evidence and data to support decision making
3. The translation of increasing recognition of the need for interdisciplinarity and systems thinking into practice, particularly in the context of policy
4. The increasingly ubiquitous role of technology across the environment
5. Challenges for evidence-informed policy in the face of increased politicisation and uncertainty
6. Pressing skills needs across the environmental sciences

Over the last 16 months, the 'Knowledge for policy' thematic project has sought to uncover answers to these challenges.

The report identifies six components of the knowledge landscape which were particularly important for understanding how systems can be influenced to promote transformative change. When taken together (see Figure 1), the six components present a more complete
understanding of the interactions between knowledge, evidence-informed policy, and transformative change, enabling a more systemic approach to transformative evidence-informed action.

Figure 1. Elements of knowledge for transformative evidence-informed action

Figure 1 sets out the six components of the knowledge landscape identified throughout the thematic project: worldviews, evidence, process, technology, barriers, and communication. It clarifies how these components can be combined into pairs that produce frames of understanding to leverage knowledge towards the aim of achieving transformative evidence-informed action on the environment. This is outlined in more detail in the full report.