EPOS is a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of social-ecological research (SÖF). The main focus of the project is policy evaluation with a focus on sustainability issues. The network is concerned with the evaluation of policies, political strategies, programmes, and instruments. Social-ecological research is a concept developed by the German Ministry of Education and Research that aims to promote ecological transformation of society while simultaneously improving social justice and economic conditions. It is closely linked to the concept of sustainability, exploring the links between the social and ecological pillars of sustainable development and ways to create synergies between them. Its core elements are problem-orientation, actor-orientation, inter- and transdisciplinarity. The EPOS project establishes a network of leading European institutions that are active in the field of policy evaluation with a focus on environment and sustainability. Core of the project is a series of network meetings which are centred on specific issues in policy evaluation. The publication of a number of papers and of a book is planned. In addition, two public events – a summer school in 2008 targeted to young scholars and a high-level policy conference in early 2009 – will ensure the dissemination of project results and the involvement of the interested public and scientific community.

Project website: www.ecologic.de/soef/epos/index.html

Publication of the project:

Selected presentations of

Topic: Evaluation and Assessment

Research field: Ecological Product Policy, Corporate Environmental Management