Translation & Actionable Science | Ecological Forecasting Initiative

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-sci e nce-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

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)