Balancing credibility, relevance and legitimacy: A critical assessment of trade-offs in science-policy interfaces

摘要: To foster strong connections between knowledge and policy action, science–policy interfaces, the information they produce exchange, need to be credible, relevant legitimate. Though this is widely accepted, there has been less emphasis on problem of trade-offs these attributes, how manifest themselves in practice. Based empirical material biodiversity-related we identify four major potential trade-offs: first, personal time trade-off: interfacing versus doing other activities; secondly, a clarity–complexity simple messages communicating uncertainty; thirdly, speed–quality timely outputs in-depth quality assessment; finally, push–pull supply-driven demand-driven research. Trade-offs are dynamic, vary through cycles, evolve with changing contexts or internal dynamics actors at interface. We outline ways easing tensions inherent trade-offs, but stress that appropriate solutions must determined case-by-case basis.