ENGAGE

Evidence-based dialogue on trade-offs in wicked societal problems.

Important societal challenges such as those related to climate change, the energy transition, biodiversity loss, emerging pests and invasive species, or the transition towards sustainable agriculture are complex, in that they are evolving fast, contain many unknown unknowns, and require international as well as multi-sectoral coordination. The best and most recent scientific evidence is ideally taken into account to guide societal and political decisions to address these challenges. However, as any political problem, addressing these challenges also involves inherent conflicts and trade-offs between different societal objectives, needs and interests. There is no single “best solution” based on scientific knowledge because decisions on a solution entail a weighing of different goals against each other. We thus need a science-policy dialogue conscientious of these societal realities while supporting the identification of trade-offs and potential solutions for such wicked societal problems.

Currently, there is a two-fold deficit to the science-policy dialogue in the context of such problems. First, there is no institutionalized platform for science-policy dialogue broad enough for integrating different scientific disciplines as well as different societal actors from different sectors. Dealing with these complex challenges across different sectors within a long-term and trustful environment of a structured platform is, however, crucial to tackle them efficiently and to address related trade-offs also across (economic) sectors. This deficit was evident, for example, in the political debate on the two popular pesticide-related initiatives or the vote against stronger regulation of greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. There was no institutional body comprehensive and inclusive enough to ensure a consolidated science-based dialogue on the respective trade-offs. The second deficit relates to the lack of awareness, sensitivity, and education of scientists on how to deal with these complex problems in coordination with decision makers that have to deal with complex trade-offs between different sectors and societal interests. This deficit was evident in the discussion about measures related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This Joint Initiative (JI) addresses this two-fold deficit by creating a dialogue platform for discussing such complex problems. It will establish this platform at the national level, including scientists from different disciplines, public authorities, interest groups and associations, as well as political parties and members of parliament. The dialogue platform will:

• Focus on making transparent the trade-offs related to complex societal challenges and their interdependencies.
• Create a close collaboration between natural and social scientists to identify, grasp, present and discuss these trade-offs with stakeholders.
• Bring the different researchers together with relevant societal stakeholders in a physical place (the dialogue hub).
• Establish a platform that creates trust between the scientific community and the diverse stakeholders.
• Elaborate innovative tools to enable researchers and stakeholders to co-discuss and jointly learn about the trade-offs and ways of addressing them.
• Strengthen the capacity of academia to address such problems at the science-policy interface by providing targeted educational programs.