Tuesday, July 7, 2026

2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Room BE.0.17

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Details

The workshop aims at better integrating social sciences into conservation. Although widely recognized, theory and reality still differ with a persisting science-practice gap as one major challenge. Also, social science pervasion of both conservation training and practice seem to vary by geographic region in Europe. Hence, the workshop is targeted at everyone in the field of conservation who is confronted with social science matters in their daily work and seeking a better understanding of these issues and overcoming barriers. In order to address potentials and challenges of social science topics in conservation, the workshop will provide a mutual learning experience. While all participants are invited to share their current or future connection to conservation social sciences through a structured, interactive method, we will also share results from a recent Delphi study which drew on ideas from the principle of "innovation biographies": Investigating knowledge dynamics and exchange, including social relations, contextual settings and cross-sectoral reach to understand how topics and people evolve, in our specific case, into “conservation social science biographies.” Via the Delphi study, we identified potentially promising intervention points, needs and tools for early academic training and later on to engage a wider audience in a more interdisciplinary approach to conservation and wildlife management. During the workshop, we will use thise findings and we also will "interactively confront" participants with similar questions and invite them to discuss, evaluate, vet and refine our findings in a group exercise. The ultimate objevtic is to refine the above-mentioned intervention points and to develop solutions on how to create better learning, networking and training opportunities throughout conservation and wildlife management careers. We will also try to actively foster and work torwards a community of practice in Europe. The workshop results are intended to contribute to a policy briefing for relevant stakeholders and decision-makers.

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Organiser