Stockholm Environment Institute unusually effective at bridging science and policy making says international panel of experts

​Stockholm, 1 July 2010 – Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) plays a clear role of global leadership in research on sustainable development. This was one of the findings of the international evaluation encompassing the scientific quality of SEI’s research and its relevance to environmental policy. The evaluation was carried out by an international panel of five leading experts on behalf of the Swedish Research Council (FORMAS).

The evaluation panel concludes that SEI is one of the few international institutes addressing sustainable development at global level. It notes that large parts of the research are on the cutting edge internationally, and are of high social relevance. Through interviews with decision makers and an assessment of research publications, the evaluators were able to conclude that SEI is ‘very effective at linking the science and policy making domains’.

Nevertheless, the panel also concluded that decision makers would benefit from more strategic advice and rapid response if additional core financial support was provided to the Institute by the Swedish government.

“The Institute welcomes the report of this highly respected team of academics. We are particularly pleased that the panel recognizes the benefits of SEI’s global organisation of research centres. Through access to local decision makers and funding, this distributed structure with centres around the world produces significant results based on limited investment,” said Professor Johan Rockström, executive director of SEI. “We are also very proud of the conclusion that SEI is producing scientific research of the highest quality and that the panel describes a number of our researchers as ‘leading scholars’.”

The evaluation found that there has been a marked improvement in the quality and number of publications over the last 4 – 5 years, from peer-reviewed journal articles to in-house reports. In addition, statistics show that SEI has been much more visible in the media since 2007. 

Even so, the evaluators conclude that the Institute could do more to market its research to target audiences and develop even closer relationships with government departments.

“The Institute is grateful to the evaluation panel for the thoughtful suggestions it makes to improve SEI’s operations and will act upon the recommendations of this report,” said Professor Måns Nilsson, deputy director of SEI. “Indeed, changes based on these recommendations have already been introduced, for example by sending a monthly electronic newsletter to inform our stakeholders of the research, events and results of the Institute.”

Evaluation report available at http://www.formas.se/upload/dokument/SEI_utvardering.pdf.

FORMAS press release available at http://www.formas.se/formas_templates/Page____6192.aspx.

Contact

Robert Watt (robert.watt@sei.se, 00 46 73 707 85 89)

Stockholm Environment Institute is an independent, international research institute specializing in sustainable development and environment issues. From fundamental research at the cutting edge to capacity building with developing countries, our goal is to bridge science to policy.

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