Project leadership:  Dr. Carsten Neßhöver
Project management: Dr. Carsten Neßhöver
Staff responsible:  Johannes Timaeus
Cooperation partners:  CEH, UK; Median, Spain und 5 weitere Partner
Funded by: EU, FP7
Project duration: 2010-2013

Project description

SPIRAL investigates science-policy interfaces (SPIs) for biodiversity in Europe.
Since biodiversity is a complex topic and because the landscape of policy and science institutions is complex there is a great variety of different SPI types. This includes classic expert groups, e.g. the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) or the new Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), state agencies such as the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) or the European Environment Agency (EEA) but also participative policy development or research.
A range of case studies will be conducted to identify factors hindering and facilitating exchange processes between science and policy-making. These case studies include, inter alia, the development of National Biodiversity Strategies of EU member states, EU research projects and the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA). The results will be communicated to SPI-practitioners. Additionally, SPIRAL Partners will engage in SPI test cases, which are projects that aim to implement SPIs. This will allow a direct interaction between SPI research and SPI practice.

Further information