Roadmap

_{Photo: Zürich, 08.11.2018, World Food System Center Research Symposium am Donnerstag, 08. November 2018, in Zürich. (Nicola Pitaro).}

The objectives of this work package is to develop, test, and implement new and enrich existing teaching and learning formats for researchers and stakeholders from policy and practice to successfully engage in science-policy dialogues in the context of wicked problems. Researchers and stakeholders will develop skills and competencies and learn concepts, methods, and tools which support them (i) to successfully engage at the science-policy interface, (ii) to effectively address wicked problems, identify, substantiate, and communicate related trade-offs and (iii) enable critical reflection about the multiple roles of researchers and other stakeholders at that interface.

The envisioned teaching and learning formats will include a variety of diverse interactive formats tailored to specific target groups and relate, among others, to the food and energy system transformation, new plant breeding techniques, or climate change adaptation and mitigation. The diverse formats will be developed in collaboration with different Swiss academic institutions to ensure their complementarity with existing capacity building formats.

To understand what key competencies are actually needed at the science-policy interface, we reviewed the existing literature, convened stakeholder workshops and conducted interviews with experts in teaching and participants of innovative didactical formats. Based on this experience and comprehensive analysis, we developed a competencies framework.