 My name is Amy Dushal, and I I mean I guess take us I guess back to This research idea that we were talking about a little bit Earlier today. I'm from C4. I'm a scientist at C4. I am coordinating a part of our global comparative study on red in six countries Brazil Peru Cameroon Tanzania Vietnam Indonesia and and working with lots and lots of young people on this and You know, I think as we heard from the earlier conversation climate change needs a new kind of scientist It can't be a scientist who's working for 30 years in their technical aspect and then discovers that their science actually has a potential policy impact We need scientists who can Think about biophysical science who can think about social science who can think about integrating those things who can work across scales I'm a forester. I need to understand agriculture. I need to understand the political economy of red Which is not something that I was trained to do I need to Be able to actually engage civil society in my research. I need to make it interesting I need to understand how my science links to the policy Environment and you know Most of our academic training doesn't prepare us for that We do not have the skills to to to take on this absolutely huge challenge that we actually have to take on as researchers and I think this is why the young researcher is the key to this because the sooner that Young scientists can get those kinds of skills and think in those kinds of integrated ways Actually there that's how we change What what we currently see as these limitations, you know, someone saying scientists are not good communicators Does it really have to be that way? I mean can we not get skills earlier on that? Scientists don't have to be bad communicators. They can actually communicate their results and work with teams to help do this So in C4 is global comparative study on red. I'm working in the part mostly in Peru and Bolivia in We collected data in 170 villages with over 4,000 families in in the six countries where we're working and in Latin America alone between 2010 and 2011 we hired 80 80 young researchers for eight sites in the Amazon and those were undergraduate students those were graduate students both masters and PhDs from Brazil and Peru and They not only collected all of the data on livelihoods and land use so that we can follow this over time and Understand the impacts of climate change mitigation activities, but then one year after they collected that data We went back to all of the places where where we had collected the first phase data And we shared the results with with the communities and with our partners and with the people who are actually implementing the the climate change mitigation activities and This is a simple step actually I mean many researchers go back to where they collected the data and they share the results and here are some some photos of doing that through community meetings through Through graphs through games through reports through actually somebody created a theatrical Production of of what the results looked like and engaged community community members in the actual theater Production as actors, you know and and what blew me away is that I was sort of imagining a kind of Conventional approach to this okay. We have our research results. We go to the communities We present them and actually these these young students Totally innovated on that. I mean the theater production. This was you know, this came out of nowhere the art the games And it just reinforced to me that this is it. I mean this is this is how Science can become interesting actually and and and the thing too is that you know, the thing that actually bothers me and it's bothered me for years and it still bothers me is when you go to these communities And they've had tons of research groups come in and you know that and they say to you You guys are the first group that's come back with the information. You know, I mean, that's just it's not okay and and it's It just shows the importance of this as sort of our first responsibility actually and this is just really basic information sharing this is not This is not a big deal. It takes some budget. It takes a bit of funds. It takes some time. It takes some Creativity, but this is I think our basic. This is that what we have to do and then we can build up from there and Maybe we could see the the next slide Michelle This is this is something that actually I developed with a bunch of other forestry graduate students when I was finishing my PhD and it was a group of us who were actually Thinking about this then and thinking of really how within our sort of confined academic environment as researchers we could Share knowledge and in different ways and and what I showed, you know Just this at the basis of the pyramid is sort of the easiest things that you can do So in our diagram, I mean we were we were graduate students at the time So we were the sort of black circle the graduate student researcher But this can be any researcher young old any and then the local stakeholders were in the white circles and that was You know, that's this can be communities. This can be practitioners. This can be policymakers I mean, it's really where you're working. You can think of this and we so that what I showed with the You know going back to communities and returning results That's simple information sharing and that's the easiest thing to do and that's the it sometimes It's one way actually sometimes it's presentations But there's always the learning that comes back When you show some of the graphs that came out from that particular site and they say well That doesn't make sense or why would it be that way and then you start questioning the analyses and it actually it becomes actually a Very two-way process and then skill building and Steven gave the perfect example of skill building I mean, thank you for that mapping Example because you as a student saw this demand you went back to your university You found how you could actually contribute and I think you know that's taking this a step farther and that's actually bringing you know Responding to a demand as a researcher and then the highest level Which is actually the hardest for for students I'd say and young researchers to get involved in but but really the place Where the most innovation is happening is this knowledge generation together and so that's when the researcher is actually Making formulating the research questions with either the communities or the practitioners or the policymakers together Creating the research questions together Implementing the research together analyzing the results and together then disseminating the results I mean, that's really and I know I'm sure you all actually know of examples What I've seen at least is that young researchers are the ones who can Break out of the boxes that we that we define I mean how much I learned from the younger students on our teams and Keep learning and and and keep changing how we think about this So if you're in the audience in your faculty and academic or part of academic programs Encourage your students to do this kind of knowledge exchange in their research Validate it plug them into your networks If you can actually create skills courses for it I was part of a you know, I happened at my in my PhD program I happen to take a course on conflict and collaboration Management and this is something that I go back to all the time actually in my work that as a forest I would have never taken actually and so if there's even opportunities for Facilitation skills courses or conflict management courses are kinds of courses that can help people in knowledge exchange You know help with that if your practitioners welcome students and young researchers into your work Develop be willing to develop research with them be willing to learn from from students And help them be better professionals By by working with you if your donors Support the the research where you see this clearly articulated or maybe not this but something that's actually showing real and genuine knowledge exchange and if your students and and young researchers, I think Recognize the very unique moment that you're in right now in your career because While there's a diversity of situations and people are under very different constraints and and things like that I Guess generally, it's you're less encumbered by a lot of the other things that come later and you're not And I want to be careful about saying this but but the some of the the conventional academic Metrics are less placed on you at that at that stage of your career So maybe you have you're more open to to be able to really engage in this and actually innovate it and teach Teach all of us about how to do this to do this better So thank you very much and and I guess the last thing is while you're here if for the people who are here take advantage of Talking with the practitioners with the policymakers with the you know if your students figure out make those connections now I mean come work with us at C4 come work with the other organizations. I mean This is a very nice opportunity to get out of your academic setting and and and make those kinds of Connections that that will help you be better professionals. So thank you