The SPIRAL Project Handbook on Effective interfaces between science, policy and society

This handbook provides a manual for projects and individuals interested in designing or improving interfaces between science, policy and society.

It is challenging – but important – to establish appropriate connections between the diverse insights and perspectives of scientists and other knowledge holders, and the needs and interests of decision-takers, implementers and other knowledge users. These connections and interactions are the “science-policy interface” (SPI).

Designing and improving SPIs of EU-funded research projects is the aim of this handbook. The handbook is based on the European Union’s FP7 SPIRAL project (‘Science-Policy Interfaces: Research, Action and Learning’) which carried out research on science-policy interfaces and communication, and
contributed at different levels to the design, implementation and improvement of real-life science-policy interfaces, such as the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the webbased exchange platform AfriBES, and the science-policy work of learned societies and
research organisations. Although our focus was on biodiversity science-policy interfaces, our findings and recommendations are relevant to other fields. In addition, while this handbook is designed to support the development and improvement of SPIs of EU-funded research projects, many findings will
be relevant to other types of SPIs.

The handbook is structured around five main issues. We start with a brief introduction to what SPIs are, and what they are not. We then move on to the issue of why SPIs are needed before looking at certain important attributes of SPIs, namely credibility, relevance, legitimacy and iterativity. In the next part of the handbook, we outline some steps and recommendations for designing, maintaining and improving the SPIs of EU-funded research projects. As part of this we then explore some factors facilitating
successful SPIs before outlining some sources and resources that may be of interest to readers.