As IWJV’s Science to Implementation Specialist, I’m excited to share an effort we developed in partnership with the Institute for Natural Resources to help people develop skills for bridging science and management: The Sagebrush Technical Transfer Network. For an early-career tech transfer nerd like me, working with the Network has been a fun and rewarding way to learn from some of the field’s greatest experts and build community around this important work. 

The amount of information available to inform rangeland management needs is rapidly growing, which is true for other fields, as well. In the last five years, over 1,200 scientific papers related to sagebrush have been published. This is generally good news, as managers strive to use the best and most relevant information to inform their decisions and actions on the ground.

The downside is that with so much information comes information overload: managers may struggle to determine what is important and actionable. They just don’t have the time to sort through everything out there and figure out how it applies to their work. Often, that information isn’t shared in a format that’s easy to use. In other words, there’s a gap between what we know and what we do. 

That’s where the Sagebrush Technical Transfer Network comes in. We host a community of practice that links folks across the West who do technical transfer and provide skills-based training opportunities. Our regular meetings provide a facilitated space to learn from others’ successes and challenges. Our trainings build on the Technical Transfer Framework, an approach we designed from the combined experience of our Network members to make technical transfer more effective.

Technical transfer provides one solution to bridging this gap. Practitioners work with managers to filter and distill what’s relevant and integrate this knowledge, from data and spatial tools to best practices, into their work. Yet, most people who do technical transfer have received no formal training on this practice and have figured out what works–and what doesn’t–on their own. I think we all wish we had received help sooner!

Coming up on August 26th is a virtual training targeted towards scientists. If you’re a scientist looking to make your work more actionable, we hope you’ll join our 3-hour virtual training. You’ll learn to effectively work with land managers to integrate science into their work by making small changes to what you already do. Until now, our Network has grown solely through word of mouth. With the launch of our new website, a hub for all things Sagebrush Technical Transfer Network, we’re ready to go big! We hope you’ll join us if you’re interested in learning skills to bridge science and management.