Introduction
Since the early decades of the nineteenth century, many countries have set up units, responsible to governments, to conduct scientific research . Departments, institutes, research councils, and agencies of varying sizes and duration have been created to carry out research at the behest of governments. With growing interest throughout the Victorian period to exploit natural resources, for example, some governments established geological assessment bodies to explore and map the landscape for metals and minerals that could be extracted for industrial purposes. In 1835, the Geological Survey in Britain was the first such venture, followed by similar surveys in Canada (1842), India (1851), Portugal (1857), Sweden (1858), the United States (1879), and other nations (Carneiro 2005; Carneiro and Mota 2007; Leviton and Aldrich 2012; Nordlund 2007; Rabbitt 1989; Secord 1986; Zaslow 1975). These research -focused organizations proved to be useful to commerce as well as governments, which prompted the establishment of additional government research units designed to support national interests about other subjects. Growing demands for agricultural improvements, for example, persuaded governments to initiate government-operated experimental farms and research laboratories in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere (e.g., Anstey 1986; Borthakur and Singh 2013; Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute 2011). Similarly, as the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth, other governments set up research units to study fisheries and marine biology , and weather activities (Hubbard et al. 2016; Walker 2012).
Scientific and technical research took on increasing importance during World War I when matters of defense and security dominated the attention of combatant nations. This experience led to the creation of new research bodies, such as the National Research Council in Canada in 1918 (Eggleston 1978; Gridgeman 1979; Middleton 1979; Thistle 1966) and growth in government-based research units. This trajectory of more and more resources invested in scientific and technical research persisted through World War II in many countries, so that by the 1950s, research conducted by groups of government-employed scientists was common around the globe. The recognition and acceptance in the 1960s and 1970s of the acute degradation of natural environments prompted governments to place greater attention on environmental research . While research on environmental subjects was not new (Mizuno 2017), growing public concern about serious environmental stresses goaded politicians into action (Allan 2017). Rachel Carson ’s Silent Spring , published in 1962, served as a flash point, focusing attention on environmental contamination, especially new pesticides, that had been developing over decades and were only destined to become worse unless solutions could be found (Lytle 2007; Murphy 2005). By the end of that decade, the Environmental Protection Agency (1970) had been established in the United States, bringing together components from several federal departments and bodies to pursue research and regulation on environmental subjects (The Guardian 1992). The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment that convened in Stockholm in 1972 (Ward and Dubois 1972) spurred additional responses by governments in many countries, e.g., the establishment of the Environmental and Consumer Protection Directorate by the European Community in 1973, which contributed to increased research initiatives undertaken by government-based scientists (Petridean 2011).
Over the fifty years since Carson’s Silent Spring , governments at all levels—municipal (local), provincial/state, national, regional, and international—have financed environmental research conducted by employees of governments or carried out under grants or contracts by academic researchers and industry consultants . Although curiosity-driven research was and continues to be pursued by researchers in government units, the research conducted by staff in government research settings often directly relates to legislative mandates or regulatory requirements set by legislation and government policy (see, e.g., Enros 2013; Wells 2016). Due to the latter focus, the research subjects tend to be applied and frequently different than those considered by faculty and students in academic contexts. In many instances, only governments have the capacity (both staff expertise and financial resources) to undertake research that is mandated by legislative and regulatory obligations . Moreover, when environmental issues cross jurisdictional boundaries , such as climate change and climate change mitigation , and are of a long-term nature, international coordination and collaboration in research may be best achieved by government-based scientists than by researchers working independently within universities .
This chapter describes what is meant by environmental research , what drives such research , and who are the main actors in the production of knowledge from research conducted within governments. The range of outputs or information products and how they are disseminated and used are highlighted. The discussion of the challenges and benefits associated with government-based research reveals unique characteristics of knowledge production that are often not obvious to the public. These topics are important areas of ongoing global research on the characteristics of the science–policy interface (e.g., Howarth and Painter 2016; Koetz et al. 2011; Tinch et al. 2018). Today, research units of governments in many countries undertake environmental research . To illustrate this global activity, this chapter presents examples from numerous countries and draws from research that offers a perspective of information use in decision-making based on case studies of information production, awareness, dissemination, and use conducted by an interdisciplinary research team (EIUI 2018). Several examples consider Canadian contexts where information is produced at federal and provincial government levels and assume a culture of evidence-based decision-making . These findings are relevant in many other settings, as noted in our analyses of the communication and use of information produced by international intergovernmental organizations.
Environmental Research
The multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary character of environmental knowledge casts a wide net over many subjects. The spectrum includes the natural, physical, and health sciences, social sciences, as well as local and traditional knowledge . To varying degrees, government units have pursued research projects involving all of these areas. In Canada , for example, many studies have focused on ecosystems (ecology and population dynamics; hydrology and biogeochemical cycles), energy (fossil fuels, renewable energy sources), resource and environmental management (agriculture, climate change , endangered species and protected areas, fisheries and oceans, forests, minerals and energy, and water), and planning and management (impact and risk assessmen...