Why Knowledge Exchange is the Missing Link for Impact in the Ecology Sector
Published on 17 July 2025
Melissa Marselle (ACCESS Co-Investigator, University of Surrey), Sarah Golding (ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow, University of Surrey) and Valentine Seymour (Former ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow, University of Surrey) discuss why combining multiple perspectives is key to addressing today’s ecological challenges.
Melissa Marselle
Sarah Golding
Valentine Seymour
Melissa Marselle, Sarah Golding and Valentine Seymour ran a knowledge exchange workshop at last year’s British Ecological Society Annual Meeting 2024, on behalf of ACCESS, entitled:
Breaking Boundaries: Why Knowledge Exchange is the Missing Link for Impact in the Ecology Sector
They have subsequently developed this workshop into a recent blog on the British Ecological Society website, in which they argue that combining multiple perspectives is key to addressing today’s ecological challenges.
They write:
“In the face of climate change, biodiversity loss and resource depletion, ecological challenges have never been more urgent—or more complex. Yet, while ecological science has advanced by leaps and bounds, many of the solutions we need appear to remain elusive. Why? Because ecological problems don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re tangled up with human behaviors, values, systems, and societies.
Solving these challenges therefore requires integration of multiple perspectives, including from the social sciences and from communities. This is where knowledge exchange steps in—not just as a buzzword, but as a transformative process that holds the key to real-world impact.”
As well as highlighting why knowledge exchange is a critical ‘stepping stone’ to impact, their blog post lists key principles for engaging with others on knowledge exchange activities and provides impactful examples of real-world knowledge exchange from the environmental sector.