1. mountain.TRIP
mountain sustainability: Transforming Research Into Practice
mountain.TRIP starts where other EU projects have finished, closing the gap
between science and practice as European Mountains face Global Change
2009-2011 | FP7 | Coordination and Support Action
Knowledge Transfer and uptake of EU research results
UHI Research Conference| 27-29 October 2010 | Moray College
Catalina Munteanu | Knowledge Exchange Associate

2. Outline
• Goals and structure of mountain.TRIP
• European mountain develomepment research – offer
and demand
• Development of mountain.TRIP products

3. Goals:
• provide stakeholders, end-users and decision makers with
readily accessible and understandable forms of research-based
information relevant to sustainable development in mountain
regions
• initiate an ongoing dialogue between research and practice –
through a mountain social network addressing the gaps between
knowledge providers and knowledge users
www.mountaintrip.eu
• provide an example for others to follow, to determine how to
use mountain research in practice

4. Structure and goals
Retrieve,
analyse and
summarise
research
results
Information NEEDS:
Telephone interviews
Online questionnaire
PRODUCTS= >
2 interaction cycles
with practitioners
RO
+ feedback to EC and research community
on future requirements

6. Offer
• Database: 110 Projects (FP4-FP7,
INTERREG), 54 analysed in depth
• Issues: availability of documents,
websites lost, links broken, contact
details outdated, long technical
reports, outdated databases
• mountain.TRIP: structure, classify,
read, summarise
-> general information on projects,
types and forms of outputs, areas
covered, main topics, main
outcomes

7. Offer vs. Demand
Offer
• Database: 110 Projects (FP4-FP7,
INTERREG), 54 analysed in depth
• Issues: availability of documents,
websites lost, links broken, contact
details outdated, long technical
reports, outdated databases
• mountain.TRIP: structure, classify,
read, summarise
-> general information on projects,
types and forms of outputs, areas
covered, main topics, main
outcomes
Demand
• 60 phone Interviews: RO, PL, SP, AT
• Online survey: approx. 100 answers
(EU-wide)
• Issues: contact persons from a
broad audience, European-level
practitioners?
To follow:
• European-level workshop
• 4 Regional workshops

8. Offer
(Analysis of project database)
• Form of results: mostly technical
project reports: e.g. 61 projects in
archive : 8 applications, tools or
software, 10 databases
• Availability of outputs: 54 analysed
projects: 19 have an output which
could be useful to practitioners but
is not available: broken links, no
money to finalise work, etc.
• Targeted audience: ~ 40% of
analysed projects directed mainly
towards the scientific community –
what about practitioners??
Demand
(First results of interviews)
• most used information sources:
direct contacts (>90%)
internet (> 85%)
professional journals (~ 70%)
• most useful tools: informal personal
exchanges, conferences, online
libraries, practical training,
centralised information, articles in
scientific and technical magazines
• Issues: availability and quality of
data, costs, lack of centralised data
sources, spatial and temporal data
aggregation
Offer vs.Demand

9. Most research:
Alps, Nordic Mountains, British Isles,
Iberian Mountains
Some research:
Carpathians ,Pyrenees
Less addressed regions:
Apennines, Balkans, Central
European Middle Mountains, Islands
mountain.TRIP evaluated
research projects

10. Offer
Topics addressed by research projects:
Most addressed:
• Climate change
• Environmental management
• Natural hazards
• Agriculture
• Regional planning and development
• Biodiversity
• Land use and land management
Least addressed:
• Tourism
• Energy production
• Cultural heritage
• Natural resources
Demand
Challenges mentioned in interviews:
Most mentioned:
• Agriculture
• Tourism
• Economy
• Biodiversity
• Transport
Least mentioned:
• Ecosystem functions and services
• Natural resources
• Information technology
• Water systems/management
• Energy production

11. mountain.TRIP products
Next step: develop products and test with practitioners

14. How can you support this action?
• Join the mountain.TRIP community: www.mountaintrip.eu
• Have your say: our survey on information needs is available
in English, German, Spanish, Polish and Romanian
• Use the mountain.TRIP database and our other resources,
draft products and give us your feedback in order to
facilitate best quality knowledge transfer!

15. ...so far...
• Research database and community: www.mountaintrip.eu to
facilitate interaction between research and practice
• Each European research project should have a mountain.TRIP
– like approach integrated!
...to follow...
• mountain.TRIP products – inform stakeholders on regionally
relevant research results
• mountain.TRIP can provide a best practice example of
knowledge exchange

16. Catalina Munteanu | Knowledge Exchange Associate
Centre for Mountain Studies, Perth College UHI
E: catalina.munteanu@perth.uhi.ac.uk
T: 01738 877 223