Implementing the evidence-based framework for review and dissemination of scientific evidence to support biodiversity conservation.

There is a dissemination problem in biodiversity management at the interface between scientific research and policy/practice. This project brings together existing networks of scientists and decision-makers with the key aim of developing and implementing a model for knowledge transfer in biodiversity management through an evidence-based framework following a protocol modified from that established in the field of health care research and practice. The collaboration of UKPopNet (Universities of Aberdeen, East Anglia, Leeds, Sheffield, York and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) and the Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation (University of Birmingham) will undertake systematic reviews and disseminate research evidence to support decision-making using an established medical model. The work requires a trained team of individuals to systematically search for and access relevant information using an explicit and repeatable review protocol so as to avoid bias, interpret the findings and present them on an open-access web site in a format suitable for decision-makers. Organisations representing decision-makers (English Nature, Scottish Natural Heritage, Countryside Council for Wales, Royal Society for the protection of Birds and The National Trust) will then assess the information produced and feedback information on its utility. The output represents a critical step forward in knowledge transfer in push-delivering systematic unbiased reviews of evidence to decision-makers to underpin biodiversity policy and practice. To date decision-makers rely heavily on their own experience, i.e. decision-making is largely experience-based rather than evidence-based. Decision-makers want to and do use evidence when available, but what they gather is not systematic, but incomplete and often biased This framework offers a systematic, transparent and unbiased method of appraising the evidence. The approach has other significant benefits; the evidence-based framework is also a formal method for identifying gaps in evidence and therefore prioritising research. It therefore encourages a two-way flow of information between the research and user communities encouraging a move toward more needs-led research. The total cost of the 3-year programme is £478K. The project is directly relevant to NERCs aim of ensuring NERC science contributes advance to the effectiveness of public services and policy and the quality of life.