The ECOBROKER topics are:

Biodiversity and ecosystems, Planning, Agriculture, Climate change, Blue Green infrastructure, Cultural heritage, Business , Education, Health, Water, Communities, Energy , Air quality, Environment, Landscape

They are used to classify both research ideas and interests of ECOBROKER participants.

  • Everybody who signs up to the ECOBROKER network is a participant. Join here
  • There are two key words that address participants in the ECOBROKER network: researcher and practitioner. These are defined as follows:
  • Practitioner: a practitioner is a participant in the ECOBROKER professional network who is professionally involved in governance, management, policy making, assessment, community organisation or planning. A practitioner will -through her/ his professional activities – have become aware of knowledge gaps that could be addressed by data collection and evaluation. Typically, a practitioner will be local authority staff, national or regional government staff, a professional at a consultancy, staff of an NGO, or similar. Practitioners will often be proponents of research ideas, and they may provide resources to address the research question in terms of their professional experience, access to field sites or datasets or other contributions to the research at hand.
  • Researcher: a researcher is a participant in the ECOBROKER professional network who is mostly interested in gathering empirical evidence that can help understand the problems highlighted in the research ideas and find potential solutions. Typically, researchers would be students or staff of third level institutions, or researchers from other research-focused professional institutions (e.g. Teagasc, Marine Institute, ESRI). Typically, the researcher would have access to and will consult with peer-reviewed scientific literature when addressing the research idea. The researchers do not necessarily have to be based in Ireland, but they have to have a means of interacting with the proponent of the research idea.
  • A person who suggests a research project is a proponent