Science planning for the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute: 2021 partner input collected using Q-methodology

In 2021, the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute (ALWRI) began the process to revise its charter, which outlines, in large part, the science priorities and general topic areas that will be of focus for the ALWRI for the next 10 years. To support this process, ALWRI reached out to a broad range of partners, both national and international, to understand perceptions of science priorities. This data publication includes partner input collected using Q-methodology. Specifically, it includes 31 science priorities (expressed via Q-sort) intended to span broad social-ecological issues, that could each be rated from -4 to 4 (-4 = lowest priority, 4 = highest priority). Responses were obtained from 175 partners of ALWRI and include additional characteristics of the partners (e.g., role, affiliation).
The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute (ALWRI) is an interagency science unit charted in 1993, which is focused on developing and disseminating knowledge to improve the understanding and management of wilderness and similarly protected wildlands. The ALWRI is a research and development program within the Rocky Mountain Research Station of the USDA Forest Service and, as such, there is a requirement to define problems that the program plans to address over time. The program of work is defined in a charter, which lasts for ten years. This partner input process supported charter development.
For more information about this study and these data, see Taylor et al. (2023) and Armatas et al. (in review).