European policy makers and researchers recognise the large policy potential of research in the field of sustainable development, but the potential is not fully used. PSI-connect wants to contribute to bridging the gap between science and policy in the field of the impacts of climate change on water management. The decoupling challenge from the EU Sustainable Development Strategy implies that impacts of climate change on the river basin system should be diminished. This is a policy issue of contemporary urgency and it is a topic where large quantities of high quality knowledge (‘untapped potential’) are available. The consortium partners are all involved in different EU-projects with high relevance and have excellent contacts with relevant national research programs and easy access to national and regional policy makers. PSI-connect will experiment with and develop innovative knowledge brokering instruments in the field of impacts of climate change impacts on river systems. These instruments will be developed from available candidates such as Communities of Practice, games, group model building, and scenario workshops. We will develop and test these instruments in six case studies: • Working group Climate Change and Water of the CIS of the WFD; • Committee on Climate Change of the EU Parliament; • German Ministry of Environment; • Dutch Ministry of Traffic, Public Works and Water management; • River basin Community Elbe (Germany) • Water Board Rivierenland (the Netherlands); The final results of PSI-connect will be tested knowledge brokering instruments for different policy levels. Furthermore, ‘knowledge brokerage communities’ will be established that act as learning communities and have the capacity to maintain European leadership in this field beyond the lifetime of the PSI-connect project itself. Results will be disseminated to the relevant audiences through summer schools, a web-site and a final conference.