Improving communication across natural and human system scientists
11 - 26 August 2023
Biography
Dr. Elisabeth Gilmore is an interdisciplinary scholar who integrates quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the dynamics of environmental hazards, socioeconomic and political factors, and adaptation responses. Her recent research has looked at the interactions of climate risks on violent conflict, mobility, and governance in developed and developing contexts as well as the economics of climate risks, mitigation, and adaptation. She is currently working on the development of long-term sociopolitical scenarios for use in climate policy and integrated assessment modeling. She also looks at how to improve communication across disciplines and decision-makers to inform climate action. Her research has received funding from the US National Science Foundation, the Minerva Research Initiative, and the European Research Council. She is an Associate Professor in Environmental Engineering and the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and an Associate Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Norway. She is also a senior adviser at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) where she supports IPCC activities and climate science priorities. She has contributed to several climate assessments as a drafting author of the Summary for Policymakers and lead author of the North America Chapter of the Working Group II’s contribution to the 6th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a lead author on the UN Environmental Programme’s first Climate Technology Progress Report, and technical contributor to the 5th US National Climate Assessment. She also sits on the Scientific Committee for the World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP) and is the Section Editor for Economics and Policy for the journal Current Climate Change Reports
Research Summary
Climate research is increasingly transcending disciplinary boundaries with scientists being required to work outside of the disciplinary background. While the need for this interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research is clear, we argue that this may introduce underexamined risks to the integrity of the scientific output. These risks may arise due to lack sufficient understanding of how models and ways of knowing vary across disciplines and the reliance on inappropriate heuristics about how systems outside of their discipline work. In this engagement, Dr. Gilmore from Carleton University and Dr. Schmidt from the University of Bristol will explore how disciplinary training and the associated ways of knowing influences how knowledge from external disciplines is interpreted and affects the acceptance of or rejection of knowledge from other disciplines as it relates to climate scientists in natural and social science fields. Drawing upon their previous engagement as co-leads of the climate risks section of the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) for Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Gilmore and Dr. Schmidt will reflect upon and develop a deeper appreciation of how disciplinary frictions arise, are experienced, and are resolved. Outcomes include more purposeful guidance to researchers on how to consider and weigh information external to their area of expertise to improve overall dialogue across disciplines. Engaging in these reflections through UoB will also involve graduate students and early career researchers who are interested in developing authentic collaborations across disciplines.
Dr Gilmore is hosted by Professor Daniela Schmidt in the School of Earth Sciences.
Planned lectures and seminars include:
Interdisciplinary working in the context of the IPCC
Seminar to explore the challenges and opportunities of working across disciplines, drawing on the IPCC work, and contributions of the Cabot researchers and their own experience
