The Fall School will present state-of-the-art tools and methods to address policy related knowledge in extended decision-making processes. Lectures by experts will cover methodologies for engaging a wide range of social actors and dealing explicitly with complexity, uncertainty, values and framings.
Particular focus will be on methodological approaches that aim at combining both aims of widening the range of actors involved in decision-making and of being transparent, open and trustful about the knowledge that is fed into the policy making cycle. These approaches are intended to assure upstream engagement of social actors in the assessment of policy issues, the decision making processes and the development of policy strategies.
The methodologies that will be taught at the school include social multi criteria evaluation, participatory methods and scenario building methodologies, uncertainty expression and communication, quality assurance protocols to deal with uncertainty, complexity and risk in decision making processes. The School will offer hands-on exercises with related software packages which will be available for use by the participants during the School.
The School’s focus this year is Biodiversity. Hence, as part of the School activities, participants will be encouraged to initiate applications of the methodologies presented to examples and cases of relevance in their professional contexts.
Objectives
The objectives of the Budapest Knowledge Assessment Methodologies Fall School (Budapest KFS) are:
- To present state-of-the-art tools and methodologies to assess knowledge in an extended way, engaging a wider range of social actors and dealing explicitly with complexity, uncertainty, values and frameworks;
- To experiment these approaches in relevant cases for the participants to the Budapest KFS;
- To outline the main issues regarding science communication in several contexts;
- To further reflect on the relevance of these methodological approaches, based on past experiences and an assessment of the professional contexts in which the participants at the School operate.
Target audience
Target audience of the Budapest KFS consists of policy makers, administrators, practitioners and stakeholders in socio-political issues in which technosciences are involved (planning, environment, urban development, transport and energy…).
A limited number of places are available for NGO’s members and researchers in interfaces between science, society and policy making. The School will be open (preferably but not exclusively) to people who hold a degree in Economics, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geography and Political Sciences.
The candidates have to be able to communicate in ENGLISH.
Deadlines
Applicants must use the application form attached to apply which should be sent to: angela.pereira@jrc.it and richard.szanto@uni-corvinus.hu by the 30th July 2008. The notification of acceptance will be sent to the candidate on the 4th August 2008.
Grants
6 grants are available for nationals resident in new EU member states and accession countries. Criteria of eligibility include also professional relevance of the School for the candidate.