Many scientists are striving to identify and promote the policy implic
ations of their global change research. Much basic research on global
environmental change cannot advance policy directly, but new projects
can determine the relevance of their research to decision makers and b
uild policy-relevant products into the work. Similarly, many ongoing p
rojects can alter or add to the present science design to make the res
earch policy relevant. Thus, this paper shows scientists working on gl
obal change how to make their research policy relevant. It demonstrate
s how research on physical global change relates to human dimensions s
tudies and integrated assessments. It also presents an example of how
policy relevance can be fit retroactively into a global change project
(in this case, SRBEX-the Susquehanna River Basin Experiment) and how
that addition can enhance the project's status and science. The paper
concludes that policy relevance is desirable from social and scientifi
c perspectives.