Dear EGU Expert,

This month’s Newsletter looks ahead to science for policy opportunities that you can jump into in early 2025! We provide you with key take-home messages from last month’s EGU event Evidence-informed planning for a new era of climate hazards, a #Science4Policy mentoring opportunity, a chance to invite policymakers to your EGU25 session, and a call for experts from the European Environment Agency.

December’s Science for Policy Newsletter also highlights a European Research Council Report on frontier research for transformative change and a couple of recently published articles that outline changes happening on the science-policy interface.

If you have any further questions or comments about the policy opportunities that exist for scientists in Europe, don’t hesitate to get in touch via policy@egu.eu.

Wishing you a relaxing and joyful holiday season,
Chloe Hill, EGU Policy Manager

On Monday 4 November 2024, EGU hosted the event, Evidence-informed planning for a new era of climate hazards in Brussels and online. This event bridged the gap between researchers and policymakers by providing them with the opportunity to collectively discuss the climate hazard challenges that we are facing along with potential solutions.

Following a high-level panel, moderated table discussions enabled participants working on similar thematic areas to share their experiences and connect on the best available scientific evidence and current or potential policy solutions. This co-creative process provided insights on immediate and future action. You can read the summary of these discussions here.

This event and summary will be used to guide the EGU’s upcoming Climate Hazard and Risk Task Force that will be established in early 2025. EGU will be launching an open call for Task Force members next month!

In collaboration with the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), the EGU is offering a 12-month hybrid mentoring scheme that will provide early and mid-career with the unique opportunity to work alongside IEEP members, gaining valuable hands-on experience and insights into how they interact and share information with Europe’s policy community.

This scheme will include up to two days per month of virtual teamwork, offering flexibility and consistent guidance. In addition to this, the selected candidate will spend three weeks in 2025 in Brussels with all travel expenses covered, allowing them to effectively engage in the IEEP’s policy projects, network with experts, and play a key role in shaping meaningful initiatives!

You can read more about this scheme and how to apply here.

To help promote knowledge exchange and a culture of evidence-informed policymaking, EGU25 is offering free registration (either on-site or virtual) to European policymakers (those whose primary function is to establish, implement, or improve European legislation). We hope that this free registration will enable policymakers to attend scientific sessions that are relevant to the legislation that they are working on and enable them to connect with the research community, share their policy work, and support future opportunities for science-policy interactions and engagement.

If you are convening a policy-related session, please consider inviting a policymaker to provide their perspective. You can send the interested policymaker this form to indicate their interest in an EGU25 registration waiver.

Please note: this registration waiver is only available for those who do not conduct geoscience-related research and whose primary function is to establish, implement, or improve European legislation. It also does not cover travel or abstract submission expenses. If you are unsure if you or a policymaker who you would like to invite meets the criteria for a free registration, please contact policy@egu.eu.

The European Research Council (ERC) published a new report on transformative change for a sustainable future. The report analyses over 300 ground-breaking ERC-funded projects across 22 countries, with a total investment of €653 million, that address the triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

These projects explore why existing technological and social solutions to these challenges are not more widely adopted. They focus on identifying barriers to overcome and the enabling factors that can help accelerate transformative change. Their findings highlight the potential of transformative change to foster conditions where nature, the economy, and society can thrive, ensuring a just and sustainable green transition.

You can read the full report 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.

As the science for policy space grows, there is more research being published on how to effectively integrate research into the policymaking process. Below are a couple of science for policy articles that have been recently published covering the current state of science advice and how we can better engage citizens in the process.

Science could solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Why aren’t governments using it?

Early this year, Nature surveyed hundreds of science-policy experts to understand how well different countries are integrating science advice and the potential barriers that they are facing. Approximately 80% of those surveyed said their country’s science advice system was either poor or patchy, and 70% said that governments are not routinely using such advice. This article analyses the survey further and highlights some of the methods that could be implemented to overcome the challenges – including the need to nurture emerging knowledge brokers.

Involving citizens in monitoring the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed upon by 195 countries under the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2022, aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. A recent study published in Nature highlights the role that citizens can play in supporting the work of governments and researchers to reverse the loss of the planet's biodiversity. The study finds that for 30% of the 365 agreed indicators, citizens could contribute both in data collection and analysis, while 51% of the indicators could benefit from citizen involvement in data collection only.