WP1. Engagement and Interface

There is growing practitioner and civil society interest in shaping knowledge and decisions at the science-society-policy interface, requiring design of participatory formats that can deal with border issues (cf. e.g., Wesselink & Hoppe, 2011; Lavelle et al., 2010; Pardoe & Mays, 2012; Gaudreau & Saner, 2014). Publicly funded projects should rise to the challenge of co-research. Yet, traditional project events – including those focused on science diplomacy – are often limited to top-down dissemination formats, dominated by podium or panel speeches.

WP1 aims to create highly interactive, potentially transformative learning events where one-way lectures are kept to a strict minimum. Instead, InsSciDE open events challenge the diverse stakeholders, each positioned in their particular field and with their particular capital of valued resources, to co-analyze the many diverse frames influencing the practice of science diplomacy (cf. Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992). Thematic and empirical study materials, field visits, role-playing exercises, and cross-cutting discussion aim to foster self-reflexivity, maximize mutual learning, jointly agree substantive outputs (recommendations, best practices...) and secure high satisfaction among the community participants.

The different project communities - diplomats, scientists, and the project study personnel - place their different languages and experience in common. Through the WP1 open events, InsSciDE fosters an effective science-diplomacy network, national and international, serviceable in times of crisis.