{"id":2828,"date":"2014-04-23T11:40:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T11:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=2828"},"modified":"2014-04-23T11:40:35","modified_gmt":"2014-04-23T11:40:35","slug":"managing-ecosystems-research-impact-through-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/archives\/2828","title":{"rendered":"Managing ecosystems: research impact through engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Emma<\/a>
Emma Rothero, The Open University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

An award-winning, externally-facing partnership with research at the core<\/strong>
\nI don't think of myself as an academic. Before I took on my current role as an Outreach Coordinator within the award-winning<\/a> Floodplain Meadows research team at the Open University I'd worked for 12 years for the Environment Agency, delivering policy, legislation and proactive conservation projects \u2018on the ground\u2019 in Dorset, Wiltshire and a little bit of Hampshire. I'd worked with a wide range of conservation and community partners, occasionally getting cross with flood defence engineers. In short, I came to this job for a change!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My background, therefore, is all about \u2018wanting to make a difference on the ground\u2019, sometimes in the absence of evidence and research (for better or for worse). Policy is generally informed by research, but sometimes practical decisions are made in the absence of sufficient evidence. For the \u2018person on the street\u2019 or the \u2018staff on the ground\u2019 time is a real pressure and if you don\u2019t hark from an academic background, reading journals is not a priority. Instead, you look to your national teams for support and guidance.<\/p>\n

So when I saw this job to co-ordinate outreach within a team of ecosystems researchers I thought what a useful thing that would be; connecting researchers with people involved in making routine site management decisions that affect floodplain meadows.<\/p>\n

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\"Volunteers<\/a>
Volunteers counting Snakeshead Fritillaries in 2012. Photo credit: Mike Dodd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The Floodplain Meadows Partnership<\/strong>
\nThe Floodplain Meadows Partnership does just that. Even before the Partnership started in 2007, the team had many contacts across the UK, and were involved in practical research trials helping to shape policy and management on floodplain meadows with national conservation organisations. <\/p>\n

The Partnership consists of seven national conservation organisations involved in floodplain meadows. The high-profile nature of these partners means that collectively we are taken more seriously than we would be individually. The partners are:<\/p>\n