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Download the Strategic Science Plan

This Puget Sound Partnership Strategic Science Plan provides the overall framework for development and coordination of specific science activities necessary to support Puget Sound ecosystem protection and restoration under the Partnership's Action Agenda.

The Science Panel welcomes comments on the draft plan. Please submit comments on the draft plan to actionagenda@psp.wa.gov. Comments received by April 7, 2010 will be summarized and provided to the Science Panel in advance of their April 13-14, 2010 meeting. At the meeting the Science Panel will discuss the comments and make any revision necessary prior to forwarding the plan to the Partnership’s Leadership Council. The Strategic Science Plan is not an official document of the Partnership until it has been adopted by the Leadership Council.

The Science Panel intends that the Partnership’s Strategic Science Plan is a high-level, living document, to be revised as needed, while specific implementation of science work is guided by the Partnership’s Biennial Science Work Plan. It is within the context of the Strategic Science Plan that the Biennial Science Work Plan lays out priorities and activities recommended for implementation during following the two-year state budget cycle. Primary audiences of the Strategic Science Plan include the Science Panel, Partnership staff, Partnership leadership boards, Puget Sound region science program managers, Puget Sound science community, and the public.

In the draft Strategic Science Plan, the Science Panel recommends a strategic science program that includes the following elements:

  • A clear understanding by the Partnership about critical roles for science within an adaptive management framework and performance management system;

  • A means to support ongoing two-way engagement between science and policy participants to continually identify and prioritize information needs as the work proceeds;

  • Development of specific science capacities to assure that the program’s science capabilities are responsive to identified needs including monitoring, modeling, data management, and research;

  • Synthesis and communication of relevant scientific information to the right people at the right times to support protection and restoration outcomes;

  • Periodic peer review of science activities at both the project and programmatic levels, with responsive modifications to the science program as needed; and

  • Education and outreach to build public awareness of the value and roles of science, to foster consensus around what we know (thereby supporting public policy decisions), and to support learning about science and about Puget Sound.