Glob. Environ. Change http://doi.org/m6m (2013)

Cataloguing the potential risks that are posed to society by climate change has resulted in a perceived need for action and hence a requirement for 'usable science'. This is now widely promoted in environmental change research programmes. However, little work has been undertaken to evaluate the success of such research in real world decision contexts.

To address this James Ford from McGill University, Canada, and co-workers developed a conceptual model and assessment framework to evaluate the usability of climate change research in decision-making. The approach was applied to research conducted as part of the International Polar Year in Canada. Twenty-three projects had the explicit goal of informing decision-making. However, this was not generally reflected in research design, with fewer than half using input from decision-makers to set research objectives. Moreover decision context was not widely considered, and knowledge users were not usually engaged in the assessment of data quality. The authors conclude that key attributes necessary for determining success in linking science to decision-making (that is, pertinence, quality and timeliness) were frequently not captured. AB