The Fall School will present state-of-the-art tools and methods to
address policy related knowledge in extended decision-making
processes. Lectures by experts will cover methodologies for engaging a
wide range of social actors and dealing explicitly with complexity,
uncertainty, values and framings.

Particular focus will be on methodological approaches that aim at
combining both aims of widening the range of actors involved in
decision-making and of being transparent, open and trustful about the
knowledge that is fed into the policy making cycle. These approaches
are intended to assure upstream engagement of social actors in the
assessment of policy issues, the decision making processes and the
development of policy strategies.

The methodologies that will be taught at the school include social
multi criteria evaluation, participatory methods and scenario building
methodologies, uncertainty expression and communication, quality
assurance protocols to deal with uncertainty, complexity and risk in
decision making processes. The School will offer hands-on exercises
with related software packages which will be available for use by the
participants during the School.

The School's focus this year is Biodiversity. Hence, as part of the
School activities, participants will be encouraged to initiate
applications of the methodologies presented to examples and cases of
relevance in their professional contexts.

The objectives of the Budapest Knowledge Assessment Methodologies Fall
School (Budapest KFS) are:

* To present state-of-the-art tools and methodologies to assess
knowledge in an extended way, engaging a wider range of social actors
and dealing explicitly with complexity, uncertainty, values and
frameworks;
* To experiment these approaches in relevant cases for the
participants to the Budapest KFS;
* To outline the main issues regarding science communication in
several contexts;
* To further reflect on the relevance of these methodological
approaches, based on past experiences and an assessment of the
professional contexts in which the participants at the School operate.

Target audience of the Budapest KFS consists of policy makers,
administrators, practitioners and stakeholders in socio-political
issues in which technosciences are involved (planning, environment,
urban development, transport and energy…).

A limited number of places are available for NGO's members and
researchers in interfaces between science, society and policy making.
The School will be open (preferably but not exclusively) to people who
hold a degree in Economics, Engineering, Environmental Sciences,
Geography and Political Sciences.

The candidates have to be able to communicate in ENGLISH.

Deadlines: Applicants must use the application form attached to apply
which should be sent to: angela.pereira@jrc.it and
richard.szanto@uni-corvinus.hu by the 30th July 2008. The notification
of acceptance will be sent to the candidate on the 1st August 2008.

Application form: http://www.essrg.hu/kfs/application_kfs08.doc

Grants: 6 grants are available for nationals resident in new EU member
states and accession countries. Criteria of eligibility include also
professional relevance of the School for the candidate.