ABSTRACT
Scientific expertise can be seen as one of the most important resources used to find solutions to political challenges. Political actors depend on scientific or expert knowledge in order to obtain and evaluate various alternative solutions to political problems. As new challenges increasingly arise within different fields of policymaking, many changes will occur which, to a certain degree, have been influenced by expert advice and scientific knowledge. Questions relating to the environment, and the use of natural resources in particular, depend on the results of scientific research. Scientific expertise can thus be seen as increasingly at the forefront of environmental policy formulation (Lidskog and Sundqvist, 2004). However, there appears to be no guarantee that the political actors will actually employ this scientific knowledge. Other factors besides rational and scientific expertise — such as power struggles, distributional conflicts, sticking to routines, etc. — are also influential within the policy process and political decision-making. Thus, the question remains how a successful transfer of scientific expertise into the policy process can be facilitated.
