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What Usable Science Means and How It Can Be Achieved: Lessons from NERRS Through the Years

Webinar Description

Since 1998, NERRS has provided competitive funding to generate usable knowledge for coastal and estuarine management. The program ’s evolution—and the insights from those participating in it—can teach us much about what usable knowledge looks like on the ground and the ways to make it through collaboration. In this webinar, James Arnott recapped his research based on examining 120 past NERRS funded projects and interviewing 40 of their participants. The practical lessons derived from this work suggest that teams of researchers and users working together in collaboration might consider a series of seemingly simple—but often difficult to answer questions—in the process of their work. Questions like: Who are the users? What is use? How do you report on use? What strategies lead to use? What are the benefits of usable knowledge? The history of NERRS research accomplishments demonstrates how many and varied answers to these questions emerge and the importance of taking into account careful consideration of that diversity in planning future projects and programs.

These slides summarize a webinar given by James Arnott of the University of Michigan on January 23, 2019 about his research based on examining 120 past NERRS funded projects and interviewing 40 of their participants.