Misinterpretations and misquotes by Forskerforum

In the current heated debate regarding the upcoming agricultural reforms, you would have thought that journalists would be minded to get their facts straight for the benefit of their readers. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

The trade magazine Forskerforum is a flagrant example of the problem. The latest issue of the magazine brings an interview with Head of Department Erik Steen Kristensen, who is cited for saying something that is the direct opposite of what he actually said and means. The misquote gives an erroneous picture of the independence of research and how research-based public-sector consultancy (policy support for short) at Aarhus University works.

When Erik Steen Kristensen pointed out this error to the journalist in writing, the correction was ignored.

You can take a polite approach and say that the journalist simply did not understand the subject. However, this would be surprising since he spent an hour and a half with the head of department where the complexities of the research were thoroughly explained. The interview was followed up by an e-mail from Erik Steen Kristensen where he corrected the mistakes in the article, including the misquote, and where he again explained what exactly policy support is.

Policy support is independent

The most serious deviation between what was said and what was written in the article is regarding the independence of the research. What Erik Steen Kristensen insists he said in connection with a comparison between policy support and traditional research at the university is the following:

”There are two – albeit approximating – cultures, but where public-funded research is based on research-based policy support and relevance. The research subject here is not a free choice. It is, however, our responsibility to choose the correct research methods and to ensure sufficient depth and breadth of the research. It is also important to remember that we have an obligation to put our knowledge into the proper context, since relevance is of utmost importance.”

The quote that Forskerforum’s article on page 20-21 (March 2016) claims as Erik Steen Kristensen’s is the following (what he did not say is written in italics):

”There are two – albeit approximating – cultures, but where public-funded research is based on research-based policy support and relevance. This research is not independent. The research subject here is not a free choice since it is defined in advance by politicians, authorities or others. However, we have the freedom to choose the correct research methods and ensure sufficient depth and breadth of the research, that the relevance in the context is of utmost importance (sic).”

In addition to the above misquote – which is even repeated in the heading – Erik Steen Kristensen is quoted in the subheading as saying that ”…’politicization’ is dealt with in relation to the stakeholders,” which is also a distortion of what he actually said.

Facts about research-based policy support

The reader may now be just a little bit confused about what policy support at Aarhus University actually is. Here is a brief explanation:

Two national centres at Aarhus University are responsible for carrying out the consultancy work. One is DCE – Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, and the other is DCA – Danish Centre for Food and Agriculture.

DCA provides research-based and impartial policy support for ministries and relevant authorities within agriculture, food and environment via a contract with the Ministry of Environment and Food. DCA coordinates and carries out quality control of the national and international policy support and is responsible for such services within 13 thematic research areas relevant for society. The areas are wide-ranging and include topics such as “Food production, landscape, nature and biodiversity”, “Bioeconomy, bioenergy and rural development” and “Importance for health of dietary and eating habits”. Read more about DCA here.

DCE provides research-based and impartial policy support and knowledge about nature, environment and energy. The most important of Aarhus University’s contracts are with the Ministry of Environment and Food, the Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate and the Environment Agency for Mineral Resources Activities for Greenland. DCE coordinates and helps to control the quality of the university’s research-based policy support on environment and energy matters commissioned by ministries and other authorities. Read more about DCE here.  

The research forming the basis for the policy support consists of both basic research and applied research and is carried out in collaboration with a large number of partners in Denmark and abroad.