The Montpellier Process @SAMConference, Vienna, Austria
27 May 2025
27 May 2025
The Montpellier Process, together with Bioagora and INRAE made the case for progressive Science-Policy-Society Interfaces (SPSIs) capable of tackling interconnected feed-care-protect nexus challenges at the in-person Vienna-based SAM Conference of the Scientific Advice Mechanism to the European Union. Drawing on real-world initiatives, the co-hosted side event ‘Making the Case: Forward-Looking Science-Policy-Society Interfaces for Tackling Nexus Challenges Across Scales, Sectors, and Actors’ explored practical tensions and opportunities in designing impactful, inclusive, and adaptive SPSIs.
After a short presentation and mapping of the three SPI cohost models to identify their synergies and differences, participants shifted into a directed fishbowl with 80 representatives from across science, policy and action. Supported by live visual sensemaking and note taking, the fishbowl probed the questions: why invest in interfacing when it’s so difficult—and what’s at stake if we don’t?
Key messages coming out of fishbowl discussion included:
Science–Policy–Society Interfaces are not self-organized. They require careful design to recognise divergence and move to alignment and action. Rather than smoothing over differences, effective SPSIs create risky-safe spaces that surface disagreement as a starting point for deeper alignment.
Future-fit SPSIs rely on collective intelligence and iterative engagement across all scales. Effective interfaces don’t trickle down. They are co-constructed across levels and actors, recognising that cities, communities, and often-overlooked actors (farmers, Indigenous Peoples, youth) are not just stakeholders, but system shapers. Strengthening these ecosystems is key to connecting local traction with global transformation.
The conventional role of science, knowledge and expertise needs to be revisited. We need a new narrative where the role of science is not only to provide evidence, but to produce knowledge that engages with and informs transformation, is inclusive of diverse knowledge systems, and proposes ways to navigate tensions and trade-offs.