International Science-Policy Unit

From Data to Decisions

The International Science-Policy Unit operates at the interface between science and policy, ensuring that robust scientific evidence on biodiversity, climate change, and Earth system dynamics effectively informs international decision-making. We draw on the full breadth of Senckenberg’s research infrastructure, including its museums, internationally significant natural history collections, and cutting-edge research programmes, to mobilize both contemporary findings and long-term observational and specimen-based knowledge for global policy processes. Our activities range from deep-sea trenches to oasis spas, and we integrate insights from the natural and social sciences, as well as business and finance.

Our mission

We enable evidence-informed international environmental decision-making. By translating, assessing, and integrating robust, transparent, and interdisciplinary scientific knowledge into global policy processes, we contribute to international efforts addressing biodiversity loss, climate change, and sustainable development.

What we do

Our core activities strengthen the science-policy interface across five areas

1. Knowledge and data management

We develop and implement approaches for knowledge and data governance, documentation, interoperability, transparency, and long-term stewardship. We support the mobilization of data and knowledge across disciplines and across diverse knowledge systems, within a multiple evidence base approach.

2. Support to assessments and policy processes

We provide technical and methodological guidance to intergovernmental bodies, ensuring the traceability, reproducibility, and policy relevance of assessments addressing biodiversity, ecosystem services, nature's contributions to people, and sustainable development.

3. Advanced data technology

We explore and apply novel digital technologies to enhance evidence synthesis, scenario analysis, and the accessibility of assessment outputs. We promote the responsible, transparent, and accountable use of advanced data technologies in global environmental governance.

4. Science-policy dialogue and inclusive engagement

Acting as a knowledge broker, we facilitate structured dialogue between scientists, socio-economic experts, Indigenous Peoples and local knowledge holders, policy representatives, and actors from business and finance. We support the inclusive integration of diverse knowledge systems to enhance the legitimacy, equity, and societal impact of international assessments and decisions.

5. Capacity building

We organize workshops, develop guidance materials, and strengthen the capacities of experts and institutions in knowledge mobilization, data stewardship, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Engagement with conventions and science-policy processes

We engage actively with a range of intergovernmental bodies, multilateral environmental agreements, and international scientific initiatives, including:

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) – the International Science Policy Unit hosts the Data and Knowledge Technical Support Unit of IPBES, providing dedicated support to the platform’s data infrastructure, knowledge management, and assessment processes.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the International Science Policy Unit hosts the Chair of the IPCC Task Group on Data for its 7th cycle, contributing leadership to the panel’s work on data transparency, traceability, and accessibility.
Other Engagements – We maintain active collaboration with and contributions to a range of additional processes and bodies, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), and the International Seabed Authority (ISA), as well as partnerships with organisations such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). We also participate in collaborative research consortia such as the Frankfurt Conservation Center (FCC) and other institutes, including the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), and the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS).