Networking environmental knowledge An EU-funded project developed an innovative approach to link the environmental knowledge and expertise held separately by various stakeholders. The project yielded a design for a Network of Knowledge aiming to gather and unify the knowledge in support of environmental policy decisions in Europe. Digital Economy © Thinkstock In recent years, Europeans have recognised the need for better-informed decision making concerning environmental issues. Yet, most of the needed information is inaccessible, held separately by various experts and organisations, and the way it is provided to decision makers is not tailored to their needs. The KNEU project designed a Network of Knowledge approach (NoK) aiming at better bridging biodiversity knowledge and decision making in Europe. For this purpose the project mapped existing knowledge holders and potential users, identified obstacles to knowledge flow and developed procedures to identify and access expertise ready to answer policy-relevant questions. These procedures were tested in three practical cases: biodiversity conservation, agriculture and biodiversity and a marine biodiversity case. Based on all the lessons learned and on the contribution of more than 300 active stakeholders, the final NoK design represents a concrete model on how the biodiversity and ecosystems services knowledge community could organize itself to access expertise and better integrate other forms of knowledge in order to improve the capacity to respond to knowledge demands from policy. The NoK is designed in a way that it is opened to all users, transparent and independent, and produces evidence-based knowledge tailored to the needs of decision makers. The 18-members consortium ran between November 2010 and April 2014 and promoted its work at numerous workshops and conferences, including one day conference at the EU Parliament. An animated video presenting the NoK was produced and translated in four additional languages. KNEU achieved its goals. The project primarily yielded a white paper and its executive summary detailing the recommended design features of the NoK and documenting the major steps necessary to implement it. Keywords Biodiversity, environmental policy, network of knowledge, science-policy-society interface
