EDITORIAL: Bridging the knowing–doing gap: know‐who, know‐what, know‐why, know‐how and know‐when

A widely recognized challenge in applied ecology is the gap between the knowledge generated by scientists and uptake by practitioners. Bridging this gap requires reciprocal and iterative flows of information from both scientists and practitioners prior to research initiation and beyond its completion. Yet current approaches to knowledge exchange ignore the complexity of translating different types of knowledge and the constraints that might limit effective knowledge exchange. Knowing who might use a particular piece of research is the first step when developing projects that might be of value to practitioners, but different types of research often can have quite different audiences. Identifying the precise target for research outputs, whether practitioners, stakeholders or end‐users, is essential for successful knowledge exchange, and outputs must be tailored to the knowledge needs of the intended recipients. The scope of many leading applied ecology journals targets use‐inspired basic research that aims to develop a theoretical or fundamental basis to support interventions, technologies and policies that lead to improved applied outcomes. This more conceptual approach, while essential to the development of future management applications, is probably not what most practitioners require. In contrast to the explicit knowledge generated by scientists, many practitioners apply their own tacit knowledge when making decisions regarding their conservation goals and interventions. Such knowledge is intuitive, largely experience based and hard to define. As a result is often context dependent and personal in nature. The failure of scientists to translate and consider tacit knowledge may be behind the lack of implementation of their research. Additional challenges to implementation include the continuing interest and relevance of use‐inspired basic research, lack of consensus among researchers regarding management options and the need for scientists to remain independent brokers of intervention options rather than conservation advocates. Synthesis and applications. Publishing research in peer‐reviewed journals will only ever be a small part of closing the knowing–doing gap. Increasingly, conservation organizations, such as NGOs and charities that employ their own scientists, steward their own protected areas, and build long‐term partnerships with stakeholders will be central to implementing applied ecological science.