Dear EGU Expert,

This month’s Science for Policy Newsletter welcomes the adoption of the Nature Restoration Law and shares opportunities for you to engage with the European Environment Agency and the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy. It also highlights a recent publication on Trustworthy Public Communications by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the Good Lobby’s Summer Academy that will take place on 22-25 July.

If you have any further questions or comments about the policy opportunities for European scientists, don’t hesitate to contact policy@egu.eu or the EGU’s official Science for Policy Twitter Account, @EGU_Policy.

On 17 June, The EU Nature Restoration Law was officially adopted by the Council of the European Union. This legislation requires EU member states to establish and implement measures to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. It also sets specific, legally binding targets and obligations for nature restoration in terrestrial, marine, freshwater and urban ecosystems.

Now, all EU member states need to create and submit their national restoration plans to the Commission, showing how they will deliver on the targets. In addition to this, they will need to monitor and report on their progress. While the EU Nature Restoration Law considers scientific evidence, it’s vital that member states also have support from the research community in the creation of their national restoration plans, their implementation, and monitoring of their effectiveness. If you want to know how you can help support policymakers with scientific evidence, visit the GeoPolicy blog post on The 10 things that you can do to start engaging with policymaking today.

You can read more about the adoption of the Nature Restoration Law here and about the EGU Biodiversity Task Force’s contribution to evidence supporting the legislation here.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is establishing a list of individual experts to support their activities with a focus on the areas of resource use, circular economy and waste, health and environment, oceans and sustainable blue economy, biodiversity, climate, and sustainability transitions. Experts in these areas can submit their details to apply to join this list and may then be invited to contribute to specific tasks and activities, such as literature reviews, data collection and/or analysis, writing technical briefings, and providing specific advice and input. All work completed by EEA listed experts will be remunerated.

You can read more about this call and apply to join the EEA list of experts here.

The European Commission has a number of Knowledge Centres that support policymakers in identifying, filtering, and structuring relevant information to their decisions. The European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy focuses on areas including resource use; circular economy and waste; health and environment; oceans and sustainable blue economy; biodiversity; climate; and sustainability transitions. If you’re interested in connecting with other researchers working on the bioeconomy, expanding your network, or broadening your research’s perspectives using an interdisciplinary lens, you can complete this survey to express interest in joining the Community of Practice on Bioeconomy. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the Hubs bi-monthly newsletter that highlights information on recent publications and policy news.

This month, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission launched their report on Trustworthy Public Communications. This report provides evidence-based insights and recommendations on how public communicators can strengthen the future of democracies by navigating information ecosystems in ways that earn the trust and confidence of citizens. While the report aims to provide practical guidance to policymakers and communications professionals, there are key takeaways that can be adopted by researchers in their communication efforts. These include the importance of building trust through your communications, the need to listen to the public and those that you’re communicating with, understanding what your goal is when communicating, and dedicating time to evaluate the effectiveness of your communication efforts and how you can improve them moving forward.

You can read the full report here.

If you want to learn more about how policy processes work in the EU and how you can engage with them, you might consider attending this year's Good Lobby summer academy which will take place in Bilbao, Spain from 22-25 July.

Knowing how and when to engage with policymakers can help you to ensure relevant scientific information is heard and used by policymakers. Some particular sessions of interest to researchers interested in interacting with policymakers include ‘Can responsible lobbying be taught?’ and ‘How do policymakers like to be lobbied?’

Read more about the summer academy programme here.