How to build trust relationships between city practitioners and scientists? Lessons learned from a local case study

Anne Roué Le Gall (1, 2, 3) , Clément Deloly (1) , Lucy Bretelle (4) , Gemma Moore (5) , James Milner (6) , Nahid Mohajeri (5) , Phil Symonds (5) , Ioanna Tsoulou (5) , Nici Zimmerman (5) , Paul Wilkinsons (6) , Mike Davies (5)

1 EHESP - École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique [EHESP]
2 DEESSE - Département des sciences en santé environnementale
3 ARENES - Arènes: politique, santé publique, environnement, médias
4 Buro Happold
5 UCL - University College of London [London]
6 LSHTM - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Cities are faced with challenges to develop in ways that meet the increasingly urgent imperatives of planetary and population health. New approaches are needed to accelerate change, including innovative ways to influence policy makers through tailor-made and trust-based research-practice partnerships. The use of scientific evidence and participatory engagement is widely recognised today for its importance for complex policy processes of environmental public health. Trust relationships between scientists and cities practitioners within participatory research programmes is required. This work explores and analyses the evolution of the relationship between scientists and city practitioners formed during the CUSSH (Complex Urban System for Sustainability and Health) research programme, focused around a local case study, Rennes, in France. The results of the analysis demonstrate that, even if the primary objective of informing decision-making through evidence-based science is not fulfilled, the use of a decision-making support tool, a quantitative HIA in this case, may lay the foundations for trust relationships, in particular by facilitating the boundary between scientists and cities practitioners. To facilitate this process, it is essential to formalise the role of a boundary spanner and lay the conditions for iterative work between scientists and cities practitioners. Finally, the research highlights a set of necessary factors for efficient participatory research commonly cited in academic literature on science and policy interactions.

Mots clés: Urban transformation; Science-policy interface; Decision support tool; Boundary spanning

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement; Santé publique et épidémiologie; Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Anne Roué Le Gall, Clément Deloly, Lucy Bretelle, Gemma Moore, James Milner, et al.. How to build trust relationships between city practitioners and scientists? Lessons learned from a local case study. Transforming our Collective Urban Future: Learning from Covid-19 - 17th International Conference on Urban Health, Jul 2021, Virtual conference, France. ⟨hal-04753007⟩