Link science with policy and advocacy: WHO official

Nagpur, Feb 28 (UNI) Linking science with policy and advocacy is necessary to ensure that the benefits of research reach the common man, WHO Kathmandu (Nepal) Environment Health Advisor Henricus Antonius Heijner said here today.

Dr Heijner was speaking to UNI on the sidelines of a two-day international conference on ''Water Crisis - Challenges and Opportunities'', which began at the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) here today.

''Scientists should communicate better with the people in the language that they understand. They should be willing to submit articles to general-interest newspapers, with support from journalists for rewriting complicated stuff in the layman's language,'' he said.

Dr Heijner said everybody in society, including the ordinary reader, policy-makers and leaders, wants to know about scientific stuff in an easier language because they all are reforming. It is absolutely necessary for scientists to communicate their messages to the public at large in this age of transparency, he added.

''Scientists must not write totems that people cannot understand, but short, staccato bullet points. Then, if somebody is interested to know more, you can tell him that there is a full ream of paper on the topic,'' he said.

''It is also necessary for government research institutions to release their findings, because it is the money of the tax payers that funds such organisations. The tax payer must know what they are doing. The public requires transparency,'' Dr Heijner added.

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