PSI-connect - Policy Science Interactions: connecting science and policy through innovative knowledge brokering

Climate change poses a major challenge to water managers and policy makers alike. Given the long-term perspective of water management, there is a need to take action now in order to reduce the vulnerabilities of people and societies to shifts in hydro-meteorological trends, increased climate variability and extreme events. At the same time, many of the anticipated climate change impacts are subject to uncertainty, only adding to the complexity of water resource challenges. Managing these uncertainties requires increased information exchange and cooperation at all scales, particularly between policy makers and scientific communities. Against this background, new management approaches and instruments are needed which support dialogue between these communities. PSI-connect, through experimentation with and development of innovative knowledge brokering instruments, will improve the quality and value of interactions between the science base and river basin managers and policy makers in the field of climate change impacts on river systems. As such, the central aim of the PSI-connect project is to promote a step change in the effectiveness of interactions between policy and science communities in the context of impacts of climate change on fresh water management.