JRC initiative to bring science and local politics closer together begins in Catalonia

The Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s main scientific advisory service, designed to provide independent scientific support to European policy development, has launched the Science Meets Regions programme, with the aim of supporting local or regional initiatives that help bring the scientific and political worlds together. One of the 9 initiatives chosen under Science Meets Regions will take place in Catalonia, under the coordination of the UVic-UCC’s BETA Technology Centre.

The BETA TC will try to efficiently connect some local and regional policy makers with scientists who have known and proven experience in municipal solid waste management. The scientists will actively assist in the problems or challenges that local and regional policy makers are currently facing with regard to waste management. The intention is to try to substantially improve the evidence-based policy-making process through a two-way dialogue.

The JRC hopes that these initiatives can contribute both to improving mutual understanding between scientists and policy makers and to facilitating policy makers’ access to the most relevant scientific evidence. They also provide scientists with a direct insight into how policies are developed.