Table 3 Suggestions from study participants on ways to enhance practitioner involvement in IPCC assessment processes
Make practitioners aware of | - Opportunity to participate as authors - Benefits of individual participation and for their organizations |
Nomination | - Encourage more development institutions to be observer organizations (including from Global South) who can then nominate practitioners (and be more accommodating of their employees’ involvement as authors) - Advertise the nomination process among practitioner groups/in practitioner spaces (e.g., professional associations) - Obtain nominations by more than one government/observer organization to increase the chance of practitioner selection |
Develop a deliberate strategy | - To identify potential practitioner candidates at the science-policy interface, working on more than local issues, with a wide network, and academic exposure (including from lending institutions) - To screen candidates once identified - To invest long-term in potential candidates who need preparation before involvement in future assessments - For a practitioner targeted induction - For chapters requiring a practitioner presence, specifying a desired ratio of academics to practitioners - To include practitioners in IPCC Bureau, scoping process, and outreach (for the latter, via practitioner networks) |
More efficient assessment process | - Fewer LAMs - Better use of technology to facilitate remote teamwork and reduce travel - More facilitation by CLAs within chapter teams, who need to be explicit about input required by the lead authors - Provision of management coaching for CLAs, including inclusivity and transdisciplinary teams |
Support practitioner authors unfamiliar with peer-reviewed literature | - Chapter scientist or research assistant support for literature searches |
Possible non-author roles for practitioners | - Identifying key research gaps - Dialoguing instead of authoring - Providing real-world perspectives on proposed chapter recommendations |
