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Supporting Actionable Research That Informs Conservation

Becky Goldburg, PhD, Director of Environmental Research and Science, The Pew Charitable Trusts

Website | @bjgoldburg

How Pew’s approaches increase the likelihood that research is applied in real world conservation decisions.

Abstract

I will discuss how the Pew Charitable Trusts’ works to supporting research that is both useful and used to inform conservation policy and practices. One key approach is collaborating with decision-makers to identify their information needs, rather than looking for research questions that are the most scientifically interesting or cutting edge. Through the Lenfest Ocean Program, we support co-designed research projects intended to provide information that decision-makers both want and can act upon. Another approach is enabling conservation researchers to reflect on questions such as, “What types of impacts do you hope your research project will have?,” and “How will you achieve your desired impacts and project goals?”.

Through the Pew Marine Fellows program we work with scientists to apply strategic tools, such as project pathways or theories of change, to systematically chart the steps and interim impacts to achieve project goals. In our experience, these approaches increase the likelihood that conservation research will result not only in contributions to the scientific literature, but also be applied to real-world conservation decisions.

Related links:

• Grant-Making Criteria for Developing Useful and Usable Marine Science: A Philanthropic Perspective
  Landrum Jason P., et al. Front. Mar. Sci., 18 January 2022. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.809953

Speaker Bio

Dr. Rebecca Goldburg directs Pew’s environmental science work, which largely focuses on research related to conservation and includes the Lenfest Ocean Program and the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation.

Before joining Pew, Goldburg was a senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a national nonprofit research and advocacy organization, where her work included the scientific and public policy issues of fish farming, antibiotic resistance, and agricultural biotechnology. At EDF, Goldburg also worked to increase market demand for more sustainably produced seafood and poultry through partnerships with several major corporate purchasers of these items. She served on the Marine Aquaculture Task Force established by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Pew. Goldburg also co-wrote the Pew Oceans Commission’s report on marine aquaculture.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in statistics from Princeton University, and a master’s in statistics and a doctorate in ecology from the University of Minnesota.

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