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Using a Communications Plan for Strategic Stakeholder Engagement in a Solutions-Driven Research Pilot
Citation:
Canfield, Katherine, A. Rudman, A. Rea, K. Mulvaney, W. Berry, Marty Chintala, W. Munns, AND Tim Gleason. Using a Communications Plan for Strategic Stakeholder Engagement in a Solutions-Driven Research Pilot. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) North America 41st Annual Meeting, Virtual, Texas, November 15 - 19, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
Involving community members in research allows for scientists to design and implement experiment and studies that can better support the needs of these community members. To do so effectively requires understanding who all the relevant community members, or stakeholders, are that have interest in or influence over the relevant research topic in the location where the are researching. This presentation provides an overview of a coordinated effort by EPA researchers to identify the relevant actors in a stakeholder-driven project addressing excess nutrient loads on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Through use of a communications plan, researchers developed a strategic engagement plan for keeping the different actors informed appropriately based on their interest and influence in the various aspects of excess nutrient loading on Cape Cod. This presentation will provide transferable approaches to designing effective stakeholder communications and engagement for researcher use in other projects.
Description:
Effective stakeholder communication in scientific research demands a coordinated plan to strategically engage with various groups based on their interest, expertise, and influence. This is the focus of researchers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) who are working closely with stakeholders on Cape Cod on a Nutrients Solutions-Driven Research (SDR) Pilot. This pilot research is focused on designing and implementing research to inform watershed-scale solutions to nutrient pollution. As a solutions-driven project, the primary goal of this pilot is to support our stakeholders in meeting their nutrient reduction goals, as excess nutrient loadings have caused impairments in more than 30 small estuaries. A secondary goal of this Nutrients SDR Pilot is to serve as a test case for designing and enacting extensive and thoughtful communication efforts throughout ORD’s research process. The focus of this talk is on the development and implementation of a project communications plan as a step towards achieving this second goal. The Nutrients SDR Pilot Communications Plan is a living document for researchers and managers to track communications activities and evolving stakeholder needs. This communications plan was developed to 1) assist researchers in streamlining their engagement and communication processes, 2) increase the likelihood of meeting stakeholder needs through usable research, 3) create communication products targeted to specific stakeholders, and 4) aid ORD in evaluating the potential contributions of SDR communication and engagement in future research efforts. Using a stakeholder-centric approach to this research process, we call for iterative stakeholder identification in the project and designing targeted communication strategies for effectively engaging with this evolving community. This talk will address the who, what, when, and why of creating a communications plan, using elements of the Nutrients SDR Pilot plan to demonstrate the transferability of this approach.
