Scientists doing fundamental XAV939 biodiversity PD-1/PD-L1 cancer research, however, should not pretend that their research has direct relevance for conservation practice. On the other

hand, conservation scientists do not need to emulate fundamental biodiversity research when their findings are relevant to conservation practice. While there are notable exceptions in which scientists appear to make contribution to both fields, as is the case of the scientists involved in the advisory board of the Swiss biodiversity forum (www.​biodiversity.​ch), overall the disciplinary gap appears to be large. How authors of the special issue perceive the gaps In order to assess and highlight the importance of the three different types of gaps we recognize, and to better assess the way forward, we asked all authors who contributed to this special issue on European grasslands to complete a questionnaire. We asked them for their opinion on the relevance of their contribution to biodiversity protection, and their perception on the causes underlying the divide between research

and conservation action. The returning answers were analysed anonymously. In Fig. 1 we present a summary of the answers as box-plots showing the median, 25 and 75 percentiles as a box, with whiskers that extend to either the maximum or the 1.5 times interquartile check details range of the data (whichever is smaller). Points beyond the whiskers are drawn individually. The graph was plotted using the programme R (version 2.15.1; R Development Core Team 2010). Fig. 1 Summary of the answers received from the respondents (n = 24). Questions to assess the conservation relevance of the own contribution; 1. Is your contribution of relevance for practical in situ conservation management (yes/no)?; 2. Do you give specific management advice in

your contribution (yes/no)? Questions concerning the cooperation with conservation practitioners; 1. Do you collaborate with stakeholders from the field of conservation management (always/never)?; 2. Which proportion of your projects was designed in collaboration with stakeholders from the field of conservation management (please estimate, 0–100 %); 3. Which proportion of your scientific articles was published together with practitioners (please estimate, 0–100 %)? Please evaluate the importance of the following C-X-C chemokine receptor type 7 (CXCR-7) three potential gaps; 1. Scientific knowledge becomes not translated into management activities (knowing-doing gap) (high/no); 2. Scientific studies analyse topics which are of limited relevance for conservation action (high/no); 3. Communication between fundamental biodiversity research and applied conservation research is too limited (thematic gap) (high/no). Questions concerning your assessment of the “knowing-doing” gap: What are the underlying causes for the “knowing-doing gap”; 1. Prejudices between scientists and practitioners (yes/no); 2. Different communication (theoretical science versus practical management) (yes/no); 3.