PACHELBEL is a three year (2010-2012) collaborative project under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme Environment, starting on 1st January 2010.

The main objective of PACHELBEL is the development, trialling and operationalisation of a tool called STAVE, which will be designed to support the work of policy-making for sustainability in real-world settings. The tool will support processes of knowledge brokerage, promoting the appropriate application of existing research findings, and the generation of new knowledge which is focused on specific policy objectives.

The project responds to recent work on sustainable consumption, which has provided compelling arguments about the difficulties entailed in seeking to address anthropogenic climate change by attempting to shift patterns of consumer behaviour. The project will take the form of a series of collaborative problem-focused interventions with policy-makers which will engage with their current work in these areas. STAVE will allow these policy-makers to examine the nature and validity of assumptions about human sensibilities, reasoning and action that are incorporated into the development of policy.

The project is concerned with two themes:

 the validity of assumptions about human behaviour that are incorporated into policy initiatives and instruments designed to address anthropogenic climate change and sustainable consumption;

 the efficient and effective use of knowledge in policy-making practices.

It will address these linked issues by means of action research interventions taking the form of collaborative working relationships with a range of governmental and voluntary organisations, all concerned with the development and implementation of policy in this area. The integration of these different dimensions of the project will create linkages between policy, practice and engagement with lay citizens. The project adopts a practical problem-focused approach to developing concrete mechanisms by which existing reservoirs of knowledge may be efficiently and effectively utilised in policy-making.

The objectives of the project are the following:

 To develop, trial and operationalise the STAVE tool in the context of concrete policy-related interventions.

 To implement a systematic evaluation of the development and performance of the STAVE tool.

 To produce guidance on how best to use the STAVE tool across a range of policy environments.

 To fully disseminate the findings of the project.