Mapping and Strengthening Ecosystems of Science for Policy

In recent years, the notion of science-for-policy ecosystems has attracted increasing attention among scholars and practitioners. Inspired by similar trends in innovation management, science policy scholars have noted that evidence, advice, and data are not simply transferred from one set of actors to another. Rather, scientific advice is orchestrated through a series of interacting mechanisms, institutions, and functions that constitute the regional, national, or transnational ecosystem for science advice. Just like in a vibrant innovation ecosystem, creating value is not merely a matter of effective “knowledge transfer” from universities to companies. Innovation today is perceived to emerge as the result of co-production among several complex institutions: companies, universities, incubators, venture capital, regulation, government policies, and market forces. The same holds true for scientific advice. Rather than emerging as the result of transactions between evidence “providers” and “users” (or between “supply-” and “demand-side”) access to robust scientific advice is the result of complex interactive processes in a fluid ecosystem.