Science-based partnership site
We make environmental knowledge usable for decision-making.
From global assessments to on-the-ground implementation, we help governments, foundations, and partners act on climate, biodiversity, and pollution.
Working globally with governments, partners, and the United Nations Environment Programme.
We turn environmental science into decisions that shape real outcomes.
Environmental decisions are not short of data.
They are short of usable knowledge.
The evidence often exists, but it is fragmented across reports, datasets, models, field insight, and institutional memory. It can be scientifically strong and still arrive too late, in the wrong format, or without a practical route into policy, finance, or implementation.
That is where GRID-Arendal is built to work: at the point where environmental knowledge has to become something decision-makers can understand, trust, and use.
What we do
We bridge the gap between science and action.
GRID-Arendal helps partners turn complex environmental information into decisions, tools, communication, and implementation support.
- Generate and synthesise environmental intelligence
- Translate complex science into usable tools and communication
- Support decision-making and implementation
- Build capacity and enable collaboration
The useful middle
Scientific depth
Communication and storytelling
Practical implementation
We turn environmental science into decisions that shape real outcomes.
Most organisations stop at knowledge.
Others focus only on implementation.
We connect the two.
Why GRID-Arendal
Trusted at the highest level
Long-standing UNEP partner with global reach.
Built for real-world use
Outputs are shaped for policymakers, practitioners, and programme teams who need to move from evidence to action.
Integrated by design
Science, communication, and implementation support are delivered together, so critical knowledge does not lose force between disciplines.
Proven across contexts
GRID-Arendal works across global, national, and local levels, adapting technical depth to the decision environment.
Competencies, reframed as outcomes
The capability partners need when evidence has to move.
Each competency is designed to make environmental knowledge more usable for the people responsible for policy, funding, programmes, and implementation.
Decision-ready environmental intelligence
What it is: Research synthesis, assessments, spatial analysis, and applied insight across climate, biodiversity, pollution, and governance.
Why it matters: Decisions improve when fragmented evidence becomes a clear basis for action.
What partners gain: A credible knowledge base that can support policy, programme design, funding decisions, and implementation.
Communication that influences decisions
What it is: Strategic communication, storytelling, data visualisation, exhibitions, media support, and policy-facing narratives.
Why it matters: Technical evidence has limited value if the people who need it cannot absorb it quickly or act on it with confidence.
What partners gain: Communication products that make complexity understandable without diluting the science.
Digital tools and platforms for environmental insight
What it is: Interactive maps, StoryMaps, data platforms, dashboards, and decision-support tools.
Why it matters: Environmental knowledge becomes more useful when partners can explore it, compare scenarios, and apply it in context.
What partners gain: Digital products that make evidence easier to access, share, and use across teams and institutions.
Capacity development and training
What it is: Workshops, guidance, facilitation, technical training, and peer-learning formats.
Why it matters: A good output only matters if institutions and communities can continue using it.
What partners gain: Stronger local ownership, better uptake, and more durable results after the project ends.
Policy and governance support
What it is: Science-policy translation, negotiation support, governance analysis, and practical guidance for environmental processes.
Why it matters: Climate, biodiversity, and pollution work often depends on rules, institutions, incentives, and cross-border cooperation.
What partners gain: Evidence that can inform policy choices, strengthen governance, and support international environmental processes.
Proof of scale
The credibility is concrete.
GRID-Arendal combines institutional trust with practical delivery across countries, partners, and global environmental processes.
Real-world application
GRID-Arendal supported plastic pollution work through science-based communication, accessible resources, and capacity-building linked to the global plastics treaty process. In 2024, its work included policy-facing knowledge products on the climate impacts of plastics and engagement around UNEA and INC negotiations.
How to work with us
Partnerships can start in different places.
Bring GRID-Arendal in early to shape a programme, or use a focused team to strengthen a specific technical, communication, or implementation component.
Co-develop projects with partners
Shape the problem, define the audience, build the evidence base, and design outputs around the decisions that need to happen.
Deliver technical and communication components
Bring GRID-Arendal into a wider programme to provide research synthesis, environmental intelligence, data visualisation, strategic communication, facilitation, or digital tools.
Support full programme implementation
Work with GRID-Arendal across the full arc: scoping, partner coordination, knowledge production, communication, training, implementation support, and reporting.
We turn environmental science into decisions that shape real outcomes.
Work with GRID-Arendal to build the evidence, tools, communication, and implementation support needed for climate, biodiversity, and pollution decisions.