Hansen et al provide an overview of the stakeholder collaboration and dissemination activities undertaken during the MICE project which promoted dialogue between stakeholders and researchers to ensure that the research was useful to the wider user community. Key lessons from their experience are that:
1. The next 10 to 20 years are important to stakeholders; projections to the 2080s have limited relevance for decision-makers.
2. The reliability of climate models needs to be improved.
3. Scientific results should be accessible to non-specialists, and stakeholders should be involved in relevant projects, ideally from the design stage.
4. There is a need to identify and bridge the gap between what scientists can realistically achieve and what stakeholders want.The United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme has provided this information as part of the monthly information service available to subscribers from http://www.ukcip.org.uk/news_dets.asp?news_id=38
(Source: Hanson, C.E., Palutikof, J.P., Dlugolecki, A. and Giannakopoulos, C. 2006. Bridging the gap between science and stakeholders: the case of climate change research. Climate Research 31: 121-133.)