Science-Policy Interfaces in a Rapidly Changing World

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of science-policy interfaces (SPIs) has been attracting a growing interest both in theoretical and empirical research since its inception in the mid-2000s. SPIs can be understood as social processes of mutual relations and knowledge co-creation between policy-makers, scientists, and other actors in the policy process that contribute to more robust policy decisions (van den Hove, 2007). Interactions between actors of the SPIs are facilitated by boundary organizations, showing large diversity in terms of whom they engage, what knowledge creation processes are developed, or which scales they operate at (Sarkki et al. 2020).

Current crises affecting different dimensions of our lives—e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss, the socio-economic and health impacts of pandemics, or the emergence of “alternative truths” and the growing mistrust in science and political institutions—require SPIs to adapt to this rapidly changing world. Strategic policy documents and scientific papers urge for transformative changes, including transformations in how politics and governance are enacted, and rethinking the role science and knowledge play in the policy process. This year the upcoming UN meetings—the COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the COP26 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—will provide an additional impetus to put SPIs under a magnifying glass.

The aim of this Special Issue is to contextualize SPIs among these changing circumstances. We invite manuscripts that theoretically or empirically investigate whether and how spanning SPIs across disciplinary silos and across different players (from policy-makers and scientists to different societal actors) is possible, which challenges emerge, and how these challenges can (or cannot) be addressed. We encourage submissions from all regions to be able to grasp the diversity of socio-cultural and political realities across the globe.

Papers that address one or more of the following topics are particularly welcome:

• The evolution of SPIs (looking backward and forward)—which factors influence their acceptance by and impact on policy and society and how their legitimacy can be improved in the future.
• Critical evaluation of SPIs—examples of evaluation frameworks or examples of evaluations and what we can learn for future SPIs.
• Addressing continued silos in SPIs, especially when dealing with environmental issues that require coordination across different policy fields (e.g., climate change, pollution, etc.).
• Case studies of existing approaches that promote SPIs and co-production across different scales and disciplines, e.g., One Health.
• Better understanding of the role of societal actors in changing SPIs, both in terms of the integration of knowledge and potential societal implementation of SPI outcomes. How do important actors or groups that have been traditionally overlooked become part of the process or how are they being impacted by the process?
• Institutional lock-ins and SPIs—context dependency of barriers and opportunities and what that means for transformative change.

If you are interested in submitting a paper, please feel free to submit an abstract via the journal system or send one via email to the Guest Editors before 15 May 2021.

Dr. Eszter Kelemen
Dr. Hien T. Ngo
Dr. Marie Vandewalle
Dr. Juliette Young
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• science-policy interface
• boundary organization
• bridging organization
• transformative change
• disciplinary silos
• knowledge co-creation
• societal actors
• critical evaluation
• institutional lock-ins
• context dependency