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 January 15, February 5, March 5, April 9, and May 7. A new schedule will be set up for June to August 2025. We are always open to people joining the calls, contact us at eco4cast.initiative@gmail.com

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 is coordinating to provide $1,000 awards to support five Project Groups. The awards are 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

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

• Seminars
  • Science Communication Seminars. The Partners & Knowledge Transfer Working Group hosted two virtual seminars on science communication.
    • The first was on November 19, 2021 “Serious Fun: Reimagining Virtual Events on Ecological Forecasting”.
    • The second seminar was on January 19, 2022 on “Sharing is Caring: Communicating Science Beyond Academic Publications”
    • A blog post providing an overview and resources shared from the Nov 19 call is available here. And a recording of the Jan 19 call is here.
  • Best Practices for Visually Communicating Ecological Forecast Uncertainty. The Social Science Working Group hosted a virtual panel on May 17, 2021. The panelist shared results from recent experiments assessing the efficacy of ecological forecast visualizations and the development of a teaching module for undergraduate students to learn about visualizing uncertainty in forecasts. A recording of the panel and resources shared by the panelists are available HERE.
  • Co-production & Actionable Science Panel. The Partners & Knowledge Transfer Working Group hosted a virtual panel on Tuesday, May 4, 2021 to discuss best practices and lessons learned for co-producing scientific material with stakeholders and decision-makers. You can find a recording from that panel and the resources shared by the panelists HERE.
• Blog Posts 
  • Translation Needs for the EFI Community, February 2, 2023
  • The Integration of Ecological Forecasts Into Environmental Policy, July 14, 2021
  • Social Science in Ecological Forecasting: People refining forecast visualization, March 23, 2020
  • Social Sciences in Ecological Forecasting, December 13, 2019
  • Making Ecological Forecasts Operational: The Process Used by NOAA’s Satellite & Information Service, November 18, 2019
  • Making Ecological Forecasts Operational: Some Lessons Learned By NOAA, July 22, 2019
• Bibliographies
  • Data Visualization Best Practices Bibliography.
    • This list is also available in the Ecological Forecasting Initiative Bibliography Zotero Group Library. Use the Filter Tags section in the lower left-hand corner of the library to select the “EFI Visualization Paper” tag to bring up all the references provided in the link above.
  • Co-production, Team Science, Translational Science, Science Communication, Bibliography.
    • This list is also available in the Ecological Forecasting Initiative Bibliography Zotero Group Library. Use the Filter Tags section in the lower left-hand corner of the library to select the “EFI Partners & Knowledge Transfer Paper” tag to bring up all the references provided in the link above.

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

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