Organisational influence on the co-production of fire science: overcoming challenges and realising opportunities
Evora Glenn A , Laurie Yung
A * , Carina Wyborn B and Daniel R. Williams C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Society and Conservation, W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA.
B The Institute for Water Futures, Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
C USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526, USA.
* Correspondence to: laurie.yung@umontana.edu
International Journal of Wildland Fire 31(4) 435-448 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF21079
Submitted: 8 June 2021 Accepted: 18 February 2022 Published: 8 April 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Addressing the challenges of wildland fire requires that fire science be relevant to management and integrated into management decisions. Co-production is often touted as a process that can increase the utility of science for management, by involving scientists and managers in knowledge creation and problem solving. Despite the documented benefits of co-production, these efforts face a number of institutional barriers. Further research is needed on how to institutionalise support and incentivise co-production. To better understand how research organisations enable and constrain co-production, this study examined seven co-produced wildland fire projects associated with the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), through in-depth interviews with scientists, managers and community members. Results provide insights into how organisational structures and cultures influence the co-production of fire science. Research organisations like RMRS may be able to institutionalise co-production by adjusting the way they incentivise and evaluate researchers, increasing investment in science delivery and scientific personnel overall, and supplying long-term funding to support time-intensive collaborations. These sorts of structural changes could help transform the culture of fire science so that co-production is valued alongside more conventional scientific activities and products.
Keywords: actionable science, collaboration, co-production, research organisations, science-management interface, science-policy interface, translation, wildfire social science, wildland fire.
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