This project addresses the issue of how to evaluate the processes by which decision-makers engage with science.

Currently, public engagement with science is either evaluated superficially or not at all. This means we don’t know the impacts of individual engagement exercises, and worse, we aren’t generating general principles about what different approaches to science communication can achieve in particular contexts. An evaluation framework based on current literature will be tested using two case studies. The first involves natural resource managers engaging with climate change adaptation science in Australia and the second focuses on river and water managers in South Africa engaging with biodiversity conservation science.