Science Policy Interface

The interaction between science and policy in water related issues is of vital importance for the effective use of existing state-of-the-art knowledge in this domain and its contribution to sustainable management of water resources.

To this end, the research team of the Centre for Hydrology and Informatics (CHI) has made progress in bridging the gap between science and policy making, by means of implementation of projects related to SPI and participation to dedicated SPI-fora.

 
More specifically, the research team was actively involved in the sound implementation of the IWRM.NET EU research project. During its implementation numerous workshops took place, the main topic of which has been the SPI. Throughout these workshops, researchers, water directors and stakeholders were exchanging their views and experiences on how to establish an effective SPI mechanism that will best identify research gaps in water science, contribute to science information transfer and support the applicability of favorable practices. The SPI-blog that was created in the framework of the IWRM.NET project continues being an active domain in the SPI field.

 
Parallel to that, CHI team participates in European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC/ICM), an international consortium that provides consultation services to the European Environment Agency (EEA). The Agency aims to deliver timely relevant water information to policy-makers and the public, with the ultimate purpose to contribute to the implementation of environmental policies in EU and CHI is the Leader concerning consultation on Fresh Water Quantity issues.

 
CHI also cooperates with water directors and policy makers in Greece (Greek Ministries, Communities and Municipalities, private companies and offices), to which the research team provides services and consultation in water science, extending thus its experience in improving the Water SPI. See also Consulting.