Using science to improve science: Introducing the Science of Actionable Knowledge community

From September 30 to October 2, 2024, the Science of Actionable Knowledge (SOAK) community gathered at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) for SOAK 2024, its biennial meeting. Co-hosted by the Aspen Global Change Institute (AGCI) and LBNL, the meeting brought together 19 SOAK members, along with several guests, for an engaging two and a half days of discussion, collaboration, and reflection on the key question of SOAK: how can science and other forms of knowledge better support decisions and actions that benefit both people and the environment?

Formed in 2017 at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center in Annapolis, Maryland, SOAK is a vibrant community of social scientists, engaged researchers, and practitioners who use critical scholarship to systematically study how science is produced and used in decisions and actions. Their goal is to understand what causes scientific knowledge to become “actionable.” In other words, they use science to improve science.

Research on actionable knowledge can take many forms, from testing new ways of translating climate information for use in decision-making to understanding how different types of collaborations between researchers and practitioners yield different kinds of real-world outcomes to carefully critiquing problems of power distribution and equity that can arise through the production of actionable knowledge. Since its inception, SOAK has published a dozen collaborative, peer-reviewed papers and many more through partnerships within the SOAK community. 

As SOAK community leader Kripa Jagannathan explains, “As more and more people start to work on developing actionable knowledge, we also need folks who are thinking from a broader, reflective, and critical perspective. The SOAK community represents some of these ‘meta’ thinkers, who are probing the questions about the conditions, mechanisms, and drivers that enable the development of actionable knowledge, and also those that enable the use of such knowledge in actions and decisions.”

Key Themes for SOAK 2024

SOAK 2024 centered on three overarching themes: advancing the Science of Actionable Knowledge, making SOAK insights usable in real-world contexts, and sustaining the SOAK community. Each theme underscored the commitment of SOAK members to deepen understanding of how actionable knowledge is generated and used , foster impactful research, and build lasting connections.

• “Doing” the science of actionable knowledge
  The first theme focused on SOAK’s core mission: using scientific inquiry to understand how knowledge becomes actionable. This year, participants presented exciting new findings from their research. For example, Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, a behavioral scientist at Stanford, reported on the challenges of running a randomized control trial (RCT) on the use of climate change decision-support tools in the Gulf Coast. Wong-Parodi and colleagues’ experimental work was intended to test the relative efficacy of in-person, webinar-based, and self-guided approaches to training city flood managers on the use of flood planning tools. Her team faced significant challenges, from COVID-19 disruptions to a particularly dramatic hurricane season, which made their experiment more difficult to execute.  Reflecting on these difficulties, Wong-Parodi emphasized the importance of embracing these challenges and “leveraging the humanity” of RCTs to enhance their actionability.
  
• Making SOAK insights actionable
  SOAK is not just about conducting research — it’s also about making its insights useful and usable in real-world contexts. This second theme explored ways to make SOAK’s findings accessible to research and funding agency personnel who would like to support actionable knowledge creation, but may not know how. To do so, they need to navigate the complexities of traditional academic and scientific institutions, which often distance discovery from application and scientists from the rest of society.
  
  To guide these efforts, SOAK 2024 attendees collaboratively developed a framework for increasing institutional capacity across different roles in research settings, from administrators to funders. This framework, spearheaded by Kristin Timm from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, targets various institutional roles to drive greater support for actionable knowledge, ultimately leading to a more impactful scientific enterprise.  
  
  “We’re learning a lot — through both research and experience — about the kinds of activities that help our research institutions generate actionable science,” says Timm. “We believe that bringing these insights together will help leaders foster institutional change more quickly and efficiently.”
  
• Sustaining the SOAK community
  SOAK members often occupy unique niches within their organizations, where their contributions to actionable science may not be fully recognized or valued. Acknowledging this, the third theme focused on sustaining the SOAK community by creating ongoing opportunities for formal and informal interactions. Members discussed the need for SOAK community members to nurture and support each other, providing a professional home for those whose research pushes traditional boundaries. 

Looking Ahead

As the 2024 SOAK meeting concluded, participants left energized by fresh insights and strengthened connections, and ready to embark on some new collaborations. In the coming months, AGCI will collaborate with the Pew Evidence Project on a new survey of research funding practices, to learn what works to incentivize actionable knowledge production. 

“I feel so fortunate to be a part of this community of colleagues,” said Ryan Meyer, Executive Director of the Center for Community and Citizen Science at UC Davis School of Education, and SOAK community member. “We are all benefiting from the deep well of advice, support, collaborative spirit, pragmatism, and intellectual curiosity that SOAK provides.” 

To learn more about the science of actionable knowledge, explore SOAK resources, and learn how you can get involved with the SOAK community, visit their newly launched website, www.scienceofactionableknowledge.org.