Participatory assessment is more than scientific or technical advice to management. It is about creating a partnership to better understand an environmental problem while involving stakeholders in the process. Science and management come together from very different perspectives.

Researchers strive to produce knowledge in their discipline and must meet academic requirements. Managers seek information to better exercise their competences and are accountable to local decision makers and stakeholders.

The following points are important to consider for a satisfactory collaboration between science and management.

Chema Concellón

Lesson 05. Keep in step with the phasing

Eric Jones

Lesson 04. Participatory assessment is a social process

Baptiste Heschung - Pixabay

Lesson 02. Integrate transdisciplinarity and participatory processes in academic research

By Confiável (Prainha, Arraial do Cabo-RJ) Wikimedia Commons

Lesson 01. Ensure shared leadership between science and management

In most cases, the initiative for participatory assessment comes from science, because of increasingly project - and policy-oriented research funding. The risk is that science imposes its own agenda and perspective, making managers feel that they are being instrumentalised.