Several Resolutions made by the Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) are based on issues raised by the scientific community. The MCPFE process has also acknowledged the role of science in policy making and stressed the need to build the policy process on research findings and other solid information. However, the expectations of policy makers and outputs of scientists do not always meet, i.e. there are gaps between current policy issues and ongoing research.
On 13 October 2004, a preparatory workshop analyzed these gaps and discussed the past and future of the science-policy interface in Warsaw, Poland. The workshop was hosted by the Polish Forest Research Institute and organized by the European Forest Institute (EFI), in collaboration with the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA), the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), IPGRI and the United Nations University (UNU). Policy-makers from several European countries and representatives of the EC and the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) participated in the workshop.
The state of needs, potentials and policy relevance of research for the MCPFE process was summarized based on a survey carried out by EFI and other inputs (visit www.efi.fi/events/2004/preparatory_workshop/  for details ). The outputs of the workshop serve as a basis for preparations of a conference in November 2005 to strengthen the science/policy interface as part of the MCPFE process. The objectives of the November conference include identification of key socio-economic, environmental and policy issues and emerging information needs from the point of view of the MCPFE process. The conference also aims at sharing the latest knowledge on the impacts of alternative policy tools, including cross-sectoral policy impacts and facilitating monitoring of the progress in implementing the MCPFE commitments. More information on this conference is available at www.efi.fi/events/2005/policy_interface/