While the production of new knowledge remains a corner stone of the academic landscape, a rapidly growing task of scientific community is providing advice to the local and national governments. This challenge calls for further elaboration of the options, best practices and mechanisms of advice in the contemporary society that is oversaturated by information.
To meet this challenge, the Estonian Academy of Sciences and the Foresight Centre, a think tank at the Riigikogu (the Parliament of Estonia), organise jointly a seminar and a training workshop Towards bridging science and decision-making in Tallinn on 31 January–02 February 2019 in the frame-work of the action Science meets Parliaments – Science meets Regions launched by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC).
The intention is to provide theoretical framework, share experience from policy-makers and offer opportunity for hands-on training on how to convert science into advice for policy, and how to deal with such advice from a “science for policy” perspective. To do so, high-level politicians, experts in cognitive studies and communication, and top scientists engaged in various advice mechanisms are invited as lecturers; professional instructors in presentation skills are engaged as trainers.
Scientists, science administrators, policy-makers, government and city officers, experts from industry, and representatives of the public who are (or are willing to be) involved in various advisory efforts are equally welcome to this event from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The intention is to provide them with information about the functioning of science advice channels and training in the use of the proper means to convert science into policy advice.