Abstract

 Nowadays the importance of involvement of citizens in decision-making processes is underlined in most recent research on effectiveness of public administration. Taking into consideration that development of science and research is fundamental for economic growth as well as sustainable development, the process of policy making in science should involve relevant stakeholders building effective relationships with key stakeholders. In case of EU, Ministries responsible for science have developed Smart Specialization Strategies for transformation of economies towards higher added value. For successful implementation of the strategies, Ministries have identified different initiatives towards involvement of key stakeholders in science policy making. In circumstances of low public and private funding to research and development in EU-13, the communication with science community has been challenging.
 Taking into account all mentioned before, the purpose of the study is to analyse the approaches on involvement of stakeholders in science policy making, especially in EU countries with relatively low budget for research and development.
 In order to achieve the purpose, the tasks are formulated as follows:
 1) to review the theoretical background for involvement of stakeholders in science policy making in EU;
 2) to analyse the best practice in ensuring the participation of key stakeholders in science policy making in EU, special focusing on case of Latvia;
 3) to provide the recommendations for the ministries in EU responsible for science in ensuring the participation of key stakeholders in policy making.
 Research methods used: scientific literature studies, statistical data analysis, expert survey.
 The research showed that effective involvement of key stakeholders in science policy making process is topical challenge for policy makers in EU, especially in countries with low share of budget for research and development. Successful strategy of involvement of key stakeholders in science policy includes effective communication at different levels, development of high-quality services as well as development of participatory administrative culture for civil servants.
 
Highlights
Pragmatic claims focus on higher quality and sustainability of political decisions arising from participatory policy processes (Brody, 2003, Blackstock et al, 2007)
One critique is that stakeholder participation has not been meaningfully implemented by governments (Siebold, 2007), with marginalized groups still being excluded from political decision-making or their involvement being limited to pure consultation (Burton, 2004)
The failure of participatory policy processes is explained by the fact that participating stakeholders lack the capacity and technical knowledge to make good political decisions (Hage et al, 2010)
Summary
Advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to have an impact on the ways that policy-makers and citizens engage with each other throughout the policy-making process (Jassen and Helbig, 2018). It is widely recognized that advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs) have impacted the ways that policy-makers and citizens engage in the policy-making process (Chadwick, 2003). In case of science policy-making, ministries responsible for science and research policy-making are facing challenges regarding involvement academia, industry and civil society in decision-making process in context of rather low investment in R&D, especially in EU-13. There are clear benefits for all parties involved (Arbter et al, 2007): __ Politicians may get better understanding of that citizens want and what is their position regarding specific questions These processes could promote more democratic policy. Challenges of participatory processes (author‘s illustration based on Arbter et al, 2007; Dalal-Clayton and Bass, 2002; UNEP, 2002; Waylen et al 2015)
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