What is Socio-Environmental Synthesis?
Socio-environmental synthesis research distills or integrates data, ideas, theories, or methods from a variety of sources in order to address an environmental issue that requires synthetic knowledge, which has not emerged using traditional disciplinary methods or data from single investigations or project sources. Synthesis research may be used to draw more reliable conclusions or it may be used to open doors to novel areas of study. Environmental synthesis is fundamentally about bringing together diverse forms of knowledge in ways that generate useful new insights: producing new knowledge, anticipating future conditions, producing new solutions to problems, or opening up new ways to think about a particular problem. Importantly, the problems and discoveries at issue require synthesis of diverse forms of knowledge. By knowledge, we mean: theories, methodologies (e.g., quantitative and qualitative), data, and ideas. Any one of these can be a catalyst for synthesis that calls on many forms of expertise. While we must be able to facilitate the merger and management of diverse and large quantitative data sets, synthesis is not limited to combining numbers, parameters, or quantitative models, and it is not limited to a particular scale or analytic mode. We anticipate that some of the most significant accomplishments in synthesis science will come from the co-development of environmental synthesis theory with an open, evolving array of policy-relevant intellectual Pursuits: novel combinations of different research traditions and epistemological perspectives. SESYNC will nurture the production of novel methodological frameworks and theoretical approaches. It will do so, first, by engaging the broad scientific community in discussions of the wide array of potentially productive approaches to environmental synthesis, and second, by analyzing those approaches from the perspective of the goal of synthesis. Please listen to Margaret Palmer's remarks from our opening event for good explanation.What is Actionable Science?
Actionable science is science that is relevant or applicable to government, business, and NGO audiences, and in a broader sense can inform a larger interested public. Consistent with social science literature, we refer to this as “actionable science ” — scholarship with the potential to inform decisions (government, business, and household), improve the design or implementation of public policies, influence public or private sector strategies, planning and behaviors that affect the environment. For a more detailed discussion of actionable science, especially for those preparing applications to a SESYNC program, please see link .What does SESYNC fund?
SESYNC supports several programs that include funding for working groups focused around specific Themes or Ventures, postdoctoral and sabbatical fellows, workshops, short courses, and visiting fellows.What does SESYNC NOT fund?
- SESYNC does not fund projects if the activity should be funded by another entity or the activity is not linked to the SESYNC mission.
- SESYNC does not fund collection of new empirical data that requires field work, surveys, or assessments at sites other than SESYNC.
- SESYNC does not fund projects requesting overhead or funds to be spent by the investigator at the investigator's home institution.