From evidence to action: how to bridge the gap between scientists and decision-makers to solve global One Health challenges

Microbiologists are well-versed in some of the biggest challenges the world is currently facing. Alongside others in the field of research, they often form the front line against global threats and crises such as food insecurity, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and beyond. They generate the evidence that could form the solutions to end much planetary suffering. Decision-makers – those in positions of power to wield that evidence – act more as generals, making the high-level strategic decisions based on the evidence coming from the research community.

Expecting an individual to have the capacity and expertise to consider the entirety of the evidence in order to make the right choice, however – from its implications on the health and wellbeing of animals, humans and the environment, to implications spanning the social, economic, equitable, political and beyond – is unrealistic no matter their leadership experience. Hence the need for evidence synthesisers, communicators and advisors to balance this information overload and streamline the information being received. 

This vital process of knowledge exchange – from evidence generation, to analysis and synthesis, decision-making and implementation – can seem a fairly simple premise. Its successful execution, however, is far from easy. The reasons for this range widely - miscommunication and misunderstanding, lack of awareness, access to information, misalignment in timing, priorities, context, or quality assurance.

”Effective knowledge exchange is the precursor to change and real-world impact.”

Overcoming these barriers requires a concerted effort from both sides of the process: those generating the evidence, such as microbiologists, and those making the decisions.

Ensuring effective knowledge exchange

The concept of ineffective knowledge exchange often being the blockade to fully informed decision-making laid the foundation for the AMI Policy Team’s recent workshop at the 9th World One Health Congress - a leading international forum that brings together a global community of experts to advance One Health science and policy. This four-day event, held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 4-7 September, featured a packed schedule dedicated to advancing the One Health agenda. With researchers, decision-makers and those somewhere in-between making up the 1,300 delegates, this diverse forum was a fascinating one to navigate for a long weekend.  

After submitting a proposal fairly close to the deadline, the policy team admittedly waited with high hopes and low expectations after hearing that the congress had received over 1,800 submissions for abstracts, session concept notes and workshop proposals. Winning the Saturday morning slot for their workshop ‘From Evidence to Action: How to Bridge the Gap Between Scientists and Decision-Makers to Solve Global One Health Challenges’ was therefore met with anticipatory excitement accompanied by a flurry of preparations.  

The workshop was built around the creation of a custom workbook, which participants were guided to complete during the 90-minute time slot. The session was run by facilitators who had successfully bridged the gap from academia and research to policy and decision-making themselves. Alongside AMI’s Chief Executive Dr Lucy Harper, who chaired the session, the Policy Team was lucky enough to have six experts accept their invitation and join their ranks to make the day a success, including two of AMI’s trustees and several of its Advisory Group Members. Inspiring flash talks from the facilitators preceded the interactive workbook session:  

AMI trustee, Professor Helen Onyeaka from the University of Birmingham, shared her experience as Deputy Director of the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action (BISCA) and how she works to ensure its research doesn’t just “sit on shelves but has real-world impact”, as well as her contributions to policy briefings within the UK Parliament and COP30.  

Former AMI trustee Professor Diane Purchase from Middlesex University, and co-chair of AMI’s Healthy Land Advisory Group, noted her involvement in contributing to policy briefs, such as the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology’s note on the future of fertiliser use, participation in policy initiatives such as the UK Parliament’s ‘Evidence Week ’, and her contributions to international environmental risk assessments and regulatory guidance. 

Dr Luísa Cruz, co-founder and CTO of MicroHarvest – a BioTech company with the fastest protein production technology in the world – and member of AMI’s Food Security Advisory Group, touched on her experience transitioning from academia to business and industry, including her experience navigating public affairs and regulatory requirements with EU agencies and Ministers. 

Dr Filipa Baptista spoke to her role at global med-tech company Siemens Healthineers, and her role as a global leader in the topics of innovation and AI. Having spent her entire career at the intersection of science, industry and decision-making, traversing the One Health sectors, Filipa spoke to the skills she has built, successfully bridging siloes and facilitating translation to benefit wider society. 

Dr Blessing M Oyedemi from Middlesex University, and one of AMI’s One Health Advisory Group members, shared her experience and passion for “translating her bench-side results to bedside” based on her research focuses of Biofilm and Antimicrobial Resistance, as well as her work supporting policy initiatives through national and international memberships and partnerships.  

And finally, Dr Frank Tu, political scientist by training, provided insights from his role as Communications & Policy Officer for the Global AMR R&D Hub (a G20 initiative established to help coordinate the global response to AMR), describing the importance of storytelling, social media, visual communications and the help of AI in bridging science and decision-making. 

This opportunity of enabling global researchers and decision-makers to work in tandem to better understand each other’s contexts, wants and needs was an exciting, impactful and well-received. But it was just the first step in AMI’s ambitions to facilitate and support better knowledge exchange.  

“I thoroughly enjoyed engaging with a wide range of stakeholders in this process. It was fascinating to hear the barriers that researchers, policymakers, and those that sit somewhere in between, such as global agencies and NGOs, face when trying to ensure policy decisions are informed by scientific evidence. The breadth of our audience was wide and the appetite large, so we are exploring opportunities to broaden the reach of this workshop, tailoring it to work for a variety of stakeholders in this increasingly complex process.” – Dr Lucy Harper, AMI’s Chief Executive 

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