Digital Storytelling Through the European Commission’s Africa Knowledge Platform to Bridge the Science‑Policy Interface for Raw Materials

The international science-policy interface increasingly needs knowledge brokers to convey technical evidence to non-specialists in an engaging way. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has a long track-record of scientific knowledge on Africa’s developmental context, but this knowledge is often fragmented and difficult to access, limiting its uptake by policymakers and other stakeholders. To overcome this, the JRC developed the Africa Knowledge Platform (https:// africa-knowl edge-platf orm. ec. europa. eu/), a web-based entry-point to knowledge that evolves constantly to best support the European Union’s objective of deepening its partnership with Africa. This highly visual and easy-to-use platform brings together datasets, narratives, interactive tools, and partnerships across more than 60 disciplines and policy priorities. Here, we introduce the Africa Knowledge Platform, focusing specifically on using digital storytelling to communicate policy-rele-vant research on Africa’s raw materials. We present two geographically explicit narratives on (1) critical raw materials for low carbon and digital technologies and (2) monitoring gold mining in remote parts of central Africa using satellite technology. Each narrative uses interactive data and accessible language to communicate relevant research from the JRC and other sources within the context of policies including the EU-Africa Strategy, the European Green Deal and its Circular Economy Action Plan, the African Union’s Mining Vision and international development agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals. Ultimately, we reflect on how the Africa Knowledge Platform can bridge the gap between scientists and policymakers, emphasising the opportunities and caveats for knowledge bro-kerage across complex science-policy contexts.


Knowledge Management at the Science-Policy Interface
Scientific information does not translate into policy in a straightforward way. This is particularly true for policies on raw materials in Africa, which are intertwined with a multitude of issues like ecosystem integrity [1], food security [2], scientific inequality [3], and resource capture [4]. This complex decision-making context makes it difficult to draw policy messages from individual research outputs. Instead, evidence-based policy takes place in a broader decision arena (sensu [5,6]) that includes different scientific disciplines, value judgements, power dynamics, and political priorities. Rather than a steady flow of data to policymakers, this decision arena involves competing voices and ever-evolving evidence. This complex science-policy arena could benefit from dedicated knowledge brokers who make sense of scientific evidence within appropriate policy contexts.
Knowledge brokers are intermediaries at the science-policy interface who assess and interpret evidence, facilitate interaction, and identify emerging priorities [7][8][9]. Their goal is to inform policy without determining it [10]. To be effective, knowledge brokers must appreciate the jargon, culture, and philosophy of both the scientific and policy communities [10]. White [11] defined two complementary forms of knowledge brokering: direct interaction and evidence products. Direct interaction, as the name suggests, entails dedicated staff with scientific backgrounds who collaborate directly with policymakers to identify emerging priorities and communicate how these relate to new research findings [11]. Unlike conventional scientists, knowledge brokers are not incentivised to produce new research but aim instead to repurpose scientific information to feed policy. Although direct interaction is effective, its value is limited to situations with centralised decision-making. Dedicated staff cannot engage with all the different actors for decentralised policymaking, which explains the second form of knowledge brokering, evidence products. Evidence products are distinct from standalone research outputs (i.e. peer-reviewed papers or technical reports) because they are designed to integrate and interpret these different sources of independent evidence for decision-makers [11]. Such evidence products can be in the form of easy-to-use websites, dashboards, databases, or decision-trees, which can be applied by non-specialists who tailor evidence for their own decision contexts.
A primary role of knowledge brokering is communicating scientific evidence. Effective communication needs to overcome barriers of knowledge access, understanding, and engagement. Scientists traditionally communicate through peer-reviewed scientific articles or technical reports, which are rarely easily accessible to policymakers. Policymakers tend to use the best available information, rather than the best information [12]. Although paywalls are often blamed for restricting access to subscription-based scientific publications [13,14], policymakers are just as unlikely to use open access resources if they are unaware of their existence. In this context, scientific content should be delivered through convenient portals, rather than distributed across multiple publishing outlets [15]. Once accessed, scientific evidence should be delivered using accessible language, free from jargon and unnecessary technicalities. If the cognitive load needed to understand scientific content is too high, it is unlikely to translate into policy [16]. Therefore, content should be communicated simply, using language that is both familiar and tailored to the policymaking audience. Once policymakers understand the scientific information, it is also necessary that they care enough to mobilise this evidence into action. Storytelling can weave scientific information into narratives that engage with policymakers on a deeper level [17][18][19].
In its simplest form, storytelling at the science-policy interface is about presenting evidence in a logical sequence where one piece of information follows as a consequence of another [18]. However, effective storytelling is more than just explaining how bits of evidence are linked. Instead, evidence needs to be framed in a way that the audience can relate to. Here, "frame" refers to the unconscious mental models (also called "schemas") people use to interpret the world around them [20]. People are more likely to recognise and engage with novel facts if these facts fit into their existing mental frames. Therefore, understanding how policymakers frame new information, and then crafting narratives to fit these frames, is the crucial first step to effective storytelling [17,18,21].
After identifying the audience's needs, narratives can be developed around characters (i.e. who are the protagonists in the story?), plot (i.e. what is the problem to be solved?), and evidence (i.e. how should the problem be solved?). These narratives can evoke strong emotions because they are designed to capture the audience's imagination [22]. This brings knowledge brokers to a significant junction: should they aspire to be impartial honest brokers who remain neutral when presenting information, or issue advocates who purposely advance a desired policy outcome [23]. Cairney and Kwiatkowski [16] argue convincingly that tailoring narratives to fit the audience's preferences, framings, and biases does not imply a shift from the role of honest broker to issue advocate. Instead, such storytelling is a pragmatic way of communicating with policymakers by knowing their operating environment [16]. In other words, telling evocative stories is about considering, rather than manipulating, the audience's needs.
Clearly, knowledge brokers must navigate complex terrain at the science-policy interface. This can be daunting for both scientists and policymakers who might prefer the safety of their specific domains of expertise. To make knowledge brokering less intimidating, here we present the lessons learnt from the Africa Knowledge Platform (AKP: www. africa-knowl edgeplatf orm. ec. europa. eu), a web-based entry-point developed by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). The purpose of the AKP is to enhance, coordinate, and integrate the JRC's knowledge on Africa in a way that supports the development and implementation of European Union policies. The content of the platform is continuously being developed. In the following sections, we first describe the science-policy context at the European Commission's JRC and how this informed the design of the AKP. Next, we present the features of the AKP and outline how these address the needs of JRC as a producer and manager of scientific knowledge. Third, we demonstrate storytelling at the science-policy interface using two separate case studies on African primary raw materials: one on critical raw materials for low carbon and digital technologies, and another on monitoring gold mining in remote parts of central Africa using satellite technology. Lastly, we synthesise the main lessons learnt during the development of the AKP and identify the caveats associated with the process.

The European Commission Joint Research Centre at the Science-Policy Interface
The JRC is the European Commission's science and knowledge service. It was established in 1957 as a nuclear research organisation, but has since expanded to support the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of European Union policies on a variety of research disciplines [12,24]. The JRC employs more than 2000 scientific staff members across six sites in five different European countries. These staff function as both producers and managers of scientific knowledge (Fig. 1a). Although JRC researchers are scientifically independent, they remain cognisant of their public duty to engage with the policy process. As a matter of fact, the JRC's strategic vision states this policy role unambiguously: "To play a central role in creating, managing and making sense of collective scientific knowledge for better EU policies" [25].
While JRC researchers produce new scientific knowledge, their roles also require them to manage diverse expert communities, make sense of different strands of scientific evidence, and engage with policymakers and other stakeholders at various levels (locally and internationally) [12]. Knowledge brokering by the JRC entails passing scientific complexity through a process of sense-making, filtering, and messaging before it is suitable for informing policy (Fig. 1a, middle).
The JRC's focus on Africa has grown considerably in recent decades [26,27]. A recent bibliometric evaluation of the JRC's research on Africa [27] showed how this work included collaborators from 130 different countries for the period 2016-2020 (Fig. 1b). Scientific evidence from such diverse geographies and organisational partners can quickly become overwhelming if managed improperly. Managing expert communities is, therefore, a priority for knowledge management at the JRC [12,25]. In addition to managing and contributing to expert scientific communities, the JRC also needs to consider the needs of a diverse set of decision-makers who formulate, implement, and monitor European Union policies. In Africa for instance, the JRC's knowledge could inform the work of the 51 European Union delegations on the continent and its surrounding islands (Fig. 1c). Direct interaction would be an ineffective form of knowledge brokering because diverse sources of evidence need to reach geographically decentralised end-users. Therefore, knowledge products are a priority for the JRC's knowledge brokering on Africa.

The Africa Knowledge Platform
To navigate the complex science-policy landscape between Europe and Africa, the JRC needs knowledge brokerage that (a) ties together evidence from different scientific disciplines and a variety of sources, (b) repackages information in a way that is accessible to non-specialists, and (c) presents knowledge that is engaging and easily used by decentralised decision-makers. The Africa Knowledge Platform (AKP: www. africa-knowl edge-platf orm. ec. europa. eu) was developed with these three requirements in mind and the intention of advancing the ambitions of the European Union's Comprehensive Strategy on Africa [28] and the Science for the AU-EU Partnership [26].
The AKP is a highly visual, web-based platform to support knowledge brokering across more than 60 topics within 10 broad themes: natural resources, sustainable growth and jobs, food and agriculture, climate change, human demography, health, security, the economy, energy, and digital transformation. This covers all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The origin of information is primarily from within the JRC, but also includes public data from reputable international organisations (e.g. NASA, FAO, UNEP) and other trusted research organisations (e.g. universities or national science agencies).
The AKP is built around four main sources of information: Datasets, Stories, Tools, and Partnerships. As of 22 June 2022, the AKP includes a collection of 203 geospatial Datasets. Users can view and overlay these data, which are generally at the scale of the whole of Africa, directly in the web-mapping interface without any expertise in geographic information systems. Each dataset has carefully curated metadata, which provides users with hyperlinks to the original source of the data. The AKP also supplies hyperlinks if data owners allow users to download datasets. In addition to datasets, the AKP currently presents 17 interactive Stories, which are digital narratives with interactive visuals, data, and maps. The purpose of these narratives is to engage with policymakers through storytelling that crosses the boundaries between scientific disciplines. The stories weave together the geospatial datasets from the AKP and related research to make sense of what would otherwise seem like disparate information. There are also 10 interactive Tools embedded directly in the AKP. These are self-contained data products produced by the JRC and its partners, which allow users to interact with, summarise, and export data for their own research purposes [e.g. 29], often updated in real time. Finally, the AKP includes a section on its Partners, which is a curated list of African institutions that have collaborated with the JRC. This list includes links to partner websites and provides brief descriptions of their collaboration with JRC. Datasets, Stories, Tools, and Partners can either be accessed for the whole continent, or in a dedicated Countries section, which allows users to access content for individual African countries separately.
The AKP went online in December 2021 and was launched formally in February 2022 ahead of the 6th European Union-Africa Union Summit. As of 22 June 2022, the platform has attracted roughly 22,000 page views from more than 8000 unique users across 136 different countries. Roughly two-thirds of users (64%) were from Europe while 20.3% were from Africa.

Advancing the JRC's Work on Africa's Raw Materials Through Digital Storytelling
The European Union, as part of its Green Deal, has developed a Circular Economy Action Plan [30]. This plan sets out initiatives to establish a policy framework to make sustainable products and transform consumption patterns so that no waste is produced. This includes efforts to develop a European market for high quality secondary raw materials and contributing to similar initiatives at a global level. Specifically, the Circular Economy Action Plan aims to "build a stronger partnership with Africa to maximise the benefits of the green transition and the circular economy".
Although these ambitions are laudable, they often outpace realities on the ground. For example, the Circular Economy Action Plan identifies electronic waste (e-waste) as one of the fastest growing sources of waste and a key product value chain to be addressed as a matter of priority [30]. African countries-especially those with larger economies like Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, and Algeria-produce e-waste that could be harnessed as a source of secondary raw materials (Fig. 2a) [31]. However, only 12 African countries have national regulations on e-waste (Fig. 2b) [31], meaning that the sector is mostly unregulated across the continent. The e-waste collection and uptake of secondary raw materials is still maturing, so in the meantime the sustainable extraction of primary raw materials remains a priority for Africa.
There are dedicated research teams within the JRC that focus on raw materials (both primary and secondary). Their work is presented and stored in a dedicated Raw Material Information System (RMIS: https:// rmis. jrc. ec. europa. eu/), an online knowledge platform on non-fuel, non-agricultural raw materials from primary and secondary sources. This system presents knowledge to support European Union policies on raw materials. However, RMIS does not focus specifically on Africa (although it does include substantive information about Africa, including recently added country profiles), nor does it include JRC information that does not focus on raw materials directly, but which nevertheless informs the development, implementation, or monitoring of European raw material policies. Therefore, the AKP developed two digital narratives to convey how JRC research can complement the RMIS when it comes to the science-policy interface for the extraction of primary raw materials in Africa. Fig. 2 The imperfect match between the generation and regulation of electronic waste (e-waste) in Africa. a The total generation of e-waste, in kilotonnes, across African countries [31] and b African countries with dedicated e-waste regulation [31]. These maps are also featured on the Africa Knowledge Platform as part of the narrative presented in case study 1 1 3

Case Study 1: Critical Raw Materials for Low Carbon and Digital Technologies
How will the European transition to low carbon and digital technologies depend on the sustainability of artisanal mines in the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)? Answering this question depends on bringing together different sources of evidence, which are often presented independently by expert researchers. We developed a narrative (https:// africa-knowl edge-platf orm. ec. europa. eu/ Criti cal-Raw-Mater ials-in-Africa) explaining how raw materials used in strategic technologies can be classified as critical when they are economically important and face high supply risks. Economic importance is the significance of the raw materials to end-use application in the EU and is measured as the value added by the manufacturing sectors that use raw materials and is corrected using a substitution index that also considers the cost and performance of alternative materials. Supply risk is based on the concentration of supply from countries with governance challenges or trade restrictions, the absence of substitutes, and a limited contribution from recycling [32].
The European Commission conducted a comprehensive study to identify the technologies needed for strategic sectors, such as renewable energy (e.g. batteries, fuel cells, wind turbines, photovoltaics), e-mobility (e.g. traction motors, fuel cells, batteries), and defence and space (e.g. robotics, drones, 3D printers, information and communication technologies) [33] (Fig. 3a). It then assessed how demand for these raw materials may increase by 2030 and 2050 considering low, medium, and high demand scenarios. Often, economically important raw materials are sourced from only a few countries globally. When these countries face obstacles to effective governance, resource extraction can lead to environmental degradation, social exploitation, and corruption. Therefore, sustainable sourcing initiatives in these countries are necessary to ensure that European end-users are not contributing to unsustainable practices elsewhere [34].
One critical raw material of particular significance to Africa is cobalt. Cobalt is commonly used in the cathodes of modern batteries and as a catalyst in fuel cells. Due to the importance of these technologies in the renewable energy and e-mobility sectors, demand for cobalt is expected to be 15 times higher by mid-century [33]. Even though cobalt is of global importance, 58% of the current supply comes from the DRC (Fig. 3b) [32], a country that scores poorly on the International Governance Index [38] due to its poor regulatory quality, the lack of Rule of Law, and the inability to control corruption.
Most of DRC's cobalt originates from the Copperbelt region along the southern border (Fig. 3c) [39]. Our story included data from outside the JRC, such as the International Peace Information Service's localities of artisanal mines in the eastern DRC [35]. This allowed us to map cobalt and copper mines (cobalt is also mined as a by-product of copper) and overlay these with various datasets related to forest loss [40], habitat fragmentation [41], and human settlements [42] (although in Fig. 3c, we use the latest landcover map from the European Space Agency [36] for illustrative purposes because it incorporates elements from the three aforementioned datasets). Overlaying the localities of mines with environmental spatial data allows the audience to visualise the convergence of different environmental and social policy priorities. While landuse change should not necessarily be attributed directly to cobalt mines, spatial overlap indicates that mining developments in the Copperbelt should be evaluated in the context of forest loss and the growth of human settlements.
Building on information about the regional environmental sustainability, our narrative also incorporated social research from two local mines near the town of Kolwezi (Fig. 3d). Mining in the DRC is unfortunately often associated with human rights violations, armed forces, child labour, and bribery or corruption [37]. We, therefore, described how a JRC study examined whether responsible sourcing programmes were effective at addressing these violations [37]. Responsible sourcing programmes included both supply chain due diligence and sustainability schemes, which were found to be effective at reducing the most egregious forms of worker exploitation.
This narrative integrated the findings from more than a dozen comprehensive studies, piecing them together to form a clear picture for stakeholders on either side of the science-policy interface. Importantly, the digital medium allowed our audience to interact directly with information and follow hyperlinks to original reports, data sources, and tools (including the RMIS). This trove of information is also embedded within the relevant policy context. The European Green Deal's Circular Economy Action Plan [30] aims to enhance the sustainability of the emerging battery value chain also by incentivising the ethical sourcing of raw materials in the proposed EU battery regulation [43]. Similarly, the African Union's Africa Mining Vision [44] aspires towards a "diversified, vibrant, and globally competitive industrialized African economy". In all, this narrative provides a convenient entry-point to the JRC's efforts supporting the policies on the sustainable sourcing of critical raw materials. Fig. 3 The features of a digital story of critical raw materials for low carbon and digital technologies. a A schematic representation of how the supply risk of critical raw materials affects the technologies needed for low carbon and digital transitions [33] (acronyms: LREE light rare earth element, HREE heavy rare earth elements, PGM platinum group metals, PV photovoltaics, ICT information and communication technology). b The supply of one these critical raw materials, cobalt, is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has 58% of the global supply [32]. c Within the DRC, cobalt mines in the southern Copperbelt region coincide with areas of land-use change. Here, localities [35] are overlayed on the landcover map by the European Space Agency [36]. d The responsible sourcing of cobalt from the DRC requires the formalisation of artisanal mines and the implementation of verifiable sustainable sourcing programmes [37] (photo by Nicolas Andres Eslava) 1 3

Case Study 2: Monitoring Gold Mining in Remote Parts of Central Africa Using Satellite Technology
How can satellite technology be used to curb illicit financial flows from Africa? This question is not immediately obvious, but answering it demonstrates the potential of using novel technologies to overcome institutional constraints to compliance monitoring in the extractive sector. Our second narrative (https:// africa-knowl edge-platf orm. ec. europa. eu/ Mappi ng-mines-from-space) demonstrated how open-source satellite imagery from Copernicus, the European Union's programme for Earth observation, can be used to monitor gold mines in remote parts of the Republic of the Congo. Gold, being low-weight and of high value, is easily smuggled and traded illegally and is the largest contributor of illicit financial flows from extracted commodities in Africa (77% of US$40 billion: Fig. 4a) [45]. Illicit financial flows can be identified through export underinvoicing [45], which occurs when the flow of raw materials from a country exceeds the payments entering the country. This robs countries of tax revenue and often contributes to corruption and the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and people. Europe's share of global trade in gold was 26% in 2019, so it too has a responsibility to ensure the sustainability of its supply chains [34].
Monitoring the growth of gold mines gives an indication of the amount of gold that is being extracted from a specific locality, which helps identify the sources of export underinvoicing. However, regular compliance monitoring is challenging in a country like the Republic of the Congo. The Congolese Ministry of Mines and Geology, in partnership with the World Resources Institute, has made significant strides in developing a digital database of its issued mining permits Fig. 4 The features of a digital story of monitoring gold mining in remote parts of central Africa using satellite technology. a Illicit financial flows in Africa are roughly US$40 billion annually, and 77% of this is due to gold mining [45]. b The Republic of the Congo has awarded mining concessions throughout the country, including for gold mining, but many of these concessions are in remote areas that require hours, sometimes days, of travel from urban centres [48]. This means that regular compliance monitoring is logistically challenging. c Near real-time, high-resolution satellite data can be used to map the growth of gold mines remotely because d the spectral signatures of alluvial mining can differ from the surrounding forest (here the landscape is shown as a false-colour image from the Sentinel 2 satellite [36]) ( Fig. 4b) [46]. However, the nation is one of the lowest-ranked by the International Governance Index [38], due to high levels of perceived corruption [47]. Moreover, most mining concessions are far from the capital of Brazzaville and require more than 5 h of travel time to reach on average (Fig. 4b) [48]. Therefore, monitoring compliance by gold mines requires an approach that is transparent and independently verifiable (to overcome perceptions of corruption) and allows for remote monitoring (to overcome logistical challenges of geographic remoteness).
Earth observation with multispectral satellite imagery can monitor the expansion of gold mines in remote areas. Alluvial gold mining entails blocking rivers, clearing riverine forests, and dredging the riverbed for ore. This creates a mining scar that can be distinguished from the surrounding forest (Fig. 4c, d). The JRC has several decades of experience developing Earth observation to monitor African forests [49][50][51], including the current ReCaREDD Project (Reinforcement of Capacities for REDD +). Although the long-term objective of this specific project is to improve the sustainable management of tropical forests, the same technologies can be used to monitor alluvial gold mining in the Republic of the Congo. The European Union's Earth observation programme, Copernicus, supplies freely available imagery generated from its Sentinel satellite missions. These include RADAR imagery that can be collected through cloud cover (from Sentinel 1) and multispectral optical imagery that includes both visible and invisible parts of the light spectrum (from Sentinel 2). Because Sentinel imagery is at a high spatial (10-20 m) and temporal (5 days) resolution, it is possible to use automated procedures to track the locality, number, age, and growth of gold mines. Even mines more than 1000 km from Brazzaville can be cross-validated with mining permits to monitor compliance in near-real-time.
Satellite technology is not the first thing that comes to mind when trying to tackle illicit financial flows. But when presented as part of a logical narrative, the potential for tighter enforcement of mining regulations is clear. The open access of data from the Copernicus programme means that Earth observation can support the Africa Mining Vision's [34] ambition to improve the capacity to manage mineral wealth. Similarly, it underpins the ambitions of the European Commission's EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 [52] to avoid placing products associated with deforestation on the EU market, promote forest friendly value-chains, and create enabling frameworks through which countries can meet global biodiversity goals. In this context, Earth observation, which was developed originally with forest monitoring in mind, can now be harnessed to ensure that the extractives sector complies with the highest regulatory standards.

Strengths, Limitations, and the Future of the Africa Knowledge Platform
Since the AKP is publicly available, its value goes beyond responding to the EU policy objective. This includes raising general awareness of the state, pressures, and responses to development challenges in Africa. The AKP is also useful in academia, both as a teaching aide and as a research tool. Moreover, its information can support the work of stakeholders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors in Europe and Africa. That being said, the AKP must be sensitive to perceptions that it is imposing European Commission values and priorities to other parts of the world. The strategic vision of the JRC-and, therefore, the AKP-is clear: "To play a central role in creating, managing and making sense of collective scientific knowledge for better EU policies" [25]. While this vision should ideally complement international policies, such as those by the African Union, the JRC remains the science and policy service of the European Commission and will, therefore, reflect its institutional identity and prioritise European Union policies. This distinction is important to avoid the unwarranted impression that Europe is entrenching asymmetrical power over African science [53,54]. The AKP can certainly inform policies within African countries, but this will entail partnership with African institutions and organisations as guided by the European Union's Comprehensive Strategy on Africa [28].
Another potential caveat is assuming that the AKP will overcome all obstacles to knowledge brokering and evidence-based policy. International policy problems are not caused solely by a knowledge deficit, but are underpinned by entrenched worldviews, political attention that shifts between pressing social and economic crises, and the contrasting priorities of individuals, institutions, and policy-networks [55,56]. Thus, knowledge brokerage through the AKP will not function independently of these other political realities.
Nevertheless, the AKP has considerable potential for knowledge brokering. Our two case studies demonstrate how digital storytelling can weave different sources of information into a tapestry that covers multiple scientific disciplines and policy contexts. While these stories cannot substitute for the specialist research needed to generate new information on specific topics, they can make sense of complexity, repackage knowledge for policymakers, and make scientific knowledge known to decision-makers. Ultimately, the AKP bridges the languages of scientists and policymakers. Engagement with stakeholders on both sides of the science-policy interface, followed by further refinement of the platform, will support the EU policies with an international dimension relevant to Africa and contribute to bringing to life the European Union's Comprehensive Strategy on Africa [28].