CCES Winter School 2015
The 2015 cohort consisted of a total of 28 PhD candidates and postdocs from the ETH Domain institutions and universities in Germany, Romania and Northern Ireland. They worked during two blocks of four consecutive days each in January and February of 2015. Supported by a dedicated team of experienced coaches, they intensively learned about methods and tools to explore opportunities and potentials offered by science-practice interfaces in addressing challenges of sustainable development. The CCES Winter School program was once again adapted thanks to detailed evaluation results and better integration of the contents prepared and delivered by a team of six core lecturers (Christian Pohl, Michael Stauffacher, Pius Krütli, Patricia Fry, Martina Mittler, Claudia Frick) and one guest lecturer in science communication (Andi Bryner, Eawag). The common theme selected for this year’s Winter School was on "Future Landscapes", with the expectation that the topic would be broad enough to encompass and integrate many diverse interests and expertise on the many issues related to landscape management and urban/peri-urban development.
Methods implemented
The 2015 cohort self-organized into two groups, each hosting a stakeholder workshop to trial methods in 1) consultation and 2) co-production of knowledge. The co-production group held their stakeholder workshop on Tuesday 10 February in the afternoon, while the second group (consultation) held their stakeholder workshop in evening of the same day, with both groups inviting stakeholders from civil society, communal offices, private industry, associations, and non-governmental organizations to take part in their workshops.
An innovation trialled at the 2015 CCES Winter School centred on a new approach for presenting analyses and communication of workshop results back to stakeholders. Instead of conventional presentations with a seated audience, stakeholders and their guests were invited back to Prosptei Wislikofen by the participants to partake in an "open-space" display of results on posters and other properties prepared by the participants, accompanied with an apéro. The event and displays not only fostered a relaxed exchange of ideas and validation of results between stakeholders and participants, it also stimulated participants’ own creativity in presenting scientific findings via less conventional means. An additional welcomed outcome was discussions among stakeholders on key issues for their communities, reflecting on the role of knowledge co-production with scientists to further their own community development goals.
Interaction with experts and reflection
On the last day of the CCES Winter School, an expert panel was invited to reflect with the participants on the diverse roles that scientists play in science-policy interactions. The expert panel consisted of a representative from academia (Prof Hubert Klumpner, ETH Zurich), public administration (Daniel Wachter, Head of the office of Local and Regional Planning, Canton Bern), and politics (Hans-Ruedi Hottiger, Member of the Grand Council of Canton Aargau and Mayor of Zofingen). Finally, a well-received parting reflection session was delivered to participants by Prof em. Peter Edwards, ETH Zurich, in the afternoon prior to departure.