RESEARCH PROJECT
Agora - an arena for developing knowledge and learning for environmental assessment
Updated: July 2025
Project overview
Project manager:
Mari Kagstrom
Cooperators:
Participants
Research groups:
More related research
Short summary
Agora aims to advance knowledge and learning within environmental assessment, including Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).
Agora core values
- Leadership and agency in environmental assessment
- Building bridges between research, practice and education
- Developing knowledge and learning in environmental assessment
- Research of high quality and relevance to society
- Sustainability and justice at the core
Current activities
For current activities, see the Swedish page.
Core values in action
Leadership and agency in environmental assessment
- Initiates and builds EA leadership through Agora,
- Supports EA actors to explore their own agency through their work and organisations,
- Studies actors’ strategies, opportunities and challenges for putting EA leadership to action.
Building bridges between research, practice and education
- Recognises EA as an interdisciplinary and plural process where people need to collaborate cross borders,
- Collaborates with EA actors from public authorities and private sector for advancing research, education and practice,
- Explores what collaboration between academia and practice can entail in EA communities.
Developing knowledge and learning in environmental assessment
- Establishes and develops Agora as a joint venue and arena for advancing knowledge and learning.
Research of high quality and relevance to society
- Acknowledges that both development of tools and providing better explanations and understandings of the use of EA is important for advancing practice,
- Engages in conceptual and empirical studies, which both develops critical mirrors for reflection in practice and, provide recommendations.
Sustainability and justice at the core
- Recognises the overarching aim of EA as contributing to a sustainable and just society,
- Acknowledges and communicates the reasons EA was developed, and why it is still needed.
About Agora
Agora was established in 2022, as a joint initiative between the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Mid Sweden University.
Engaging with EA as a learning community, a policy tool for sustainable and just transformation, and a field of practice.