ABSTRACT
Europe is experiencing a radically new approach towards water management, based on the natural hydrological unit of the river basin rather than administrative boundaries. At the same time, climate change exacerbates the uncertainties in river basin management planning due to hard-to-predict impacts such as sea-level rise, extreme rainfall and droughts, or species and ecosystems both on land and in water. In the PSI-connect project we aimed to deal adequately with the challenges of linking scientific knowledge to river basin management in the context of climate change. We tested four types of knowledge brokerage and collaborative knowledge production instruments in the context of “real-life” policy processes. Brokering knowledge fostered sharing of experiences and knowledge, integration of different types of knowledge, and generation of new views and knowledge among stakeholders, researchers and policy-makers. Three distinct roles seem to be relevant for knowledge brokerage processes, i.e. the facilitative leader, the knowledge broker, and the facilitator. These processes also opened a wider scope of problem perceptions and interests of different actors. Nonetheless, should these new insights require changes in organizational routines or structures, it is unlikely that they will be taken up unless support from high-level management is secured.
