Translation & Actionable Science

Overview of the Translation Group

Translational ecology aims to increase the usability of knowledge and products beyond scientific communities by integrating socio-environmental knowledge and stakeholders as partners in the process and projects. Co-production is an inclusive process of knowledge production that engages partners from a range of sectors including academia, agencies, businesses, and communities.  Ideally, co-production starts at the beginning of a project, to generate questions, share system insights, and inform decision making with end products being operationalized with accelerated use.

The Translation Working Group organically developed from the overlap in activities by the Social Science and Partners & Knowledge Transfer Working Groups. The Partners working group was focused on fostering collaborations and forecast co-production among academics, government agencies, industry, NGOs, and citizen scientists. Whereas, the Social Science Working Group was focused on: developing methods, interdisciplinary collaboration on improving ecological forecasting models, co-production with stakeholders who may or will use ecological forecasts, developing and testing new ecological forecasting decision support products, and improving the tools and processes that advance the use of forecasts in environmental decisions.

Translation Working Group Schedule of Calls:
The Translation Group will meet on Wednesdays at 2pm US ET on June 11, July 9, and August 6. A new schedule will be set up for September to December 2025. We are always open to people joining the calls, contact us at eco4cast.initiative@gmail.com

Engaged Science and Co-production Tutorials

Inspired by a 2023 Blog Post on translational science needs of the EFI community, the Translation working group has been developing short YouTube tutorials on the why, what, who, when, where, and how of engaging with interested parties, rightsholders, and end users of forecasts. Each tutorial also provides snippets from interviews with EFI community members and teams that exemplify a range of ways such collaborations have taken place.

You can find more details at: https://ecoforecast.org/engaged-research-tutorials/

You can find the YouTube playlist of recordings at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmpgJtGjCb06MMmdT6nplmjhND6lBLXhq

Recordings will continue to be made public over the summer.

Social Science and Ecoforecasting Planning Award RFP

Based on the need to develop interdisciplinary ecological forecasting projects with social scientists, the Translation and Actionable Science Working Group coordinated to provide $1,000 awards to support five Project Groups. The awards were not restricted to just the US or to specific career stages.

Each Project Group will use the award to either 1) develop a proposal for an identified external funding opportunity or2) convene a group to explore ideas and potential funding sources.

These activities should advance the use of social science in ecological forecasting and address ethical, methodological, or empirical gaps and advancements in the field of ecological forecasting.

Proposals were due August 26, 2024 and awards were announced September 16, 2024.

See the awardees at: https://ecoforecast.org/social-science-ecoforecasting-rfp-awardees/

Find further details about the funding opportunity, FAQs, the application form, and criteria for evaluating proposals at: https://ecoforecast.org/social-science-ecological-forecasting-projects-rfp/
A short 3-minute overview can be found at: https://youtu.be/UxD2uQhGfMs

Overview of the Translation Working Group

Kira Sullivan-Wiley provides an overview of the Translation Working Group for the EFI 2022 Conference held on May 23-25, 2022.

Resources Previously Developed by the Social Science and Partners & Knowledge Transfer Groups

Notes from Working Group Calls
Co-chairs: Kira Sullivan-Wiley (The Pew Charitable Trust), Michael Gerst (University of Maryland)

  1. May 7, 2025
  2. April 9, 2025
  3. March 5, 2025
  4. February 5, 2025
  5. January 15, 2025
  6. December 10, 2024
  7. November 12, 2024
  8. October 8, 2024
  9. September 10, 2024
  10. August 1, 2024
  11. July 11, 2024
  12. June 6, 2024
  13. May 16, 2024
  14. April 18, 2024
  15. March 21, 2024
  16. February 15, 2024
  17. January 18, 2024
  18. December 5, 2023
  19. November 7, 2023
  20. October 10, 2023
  21. September 12, 2023
  22. August 15, 2023
  23. July 18, 2023
  24. June 13, 2023
  25. May 23, 2023
  26. April 25, 2023
  27. March 28, 2023
  28. February 14, 2023
  29. January 24, 2023
  30. December 12, 2022
  31. November 14, 2022
  32. October 10, 2022
  33. September 12, 2022
  34. August 9, 2022
  35. July 12, 2022
  36. June 21, 2022
  37. May 5, 2022
  38. March 8, 2022 – joint Social Sciences and Partner Working Groups call