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Abstract
Modern environmental issues imply that decision-makers take into account opinions
from experts of different spheres. Boundary organizations are institutions able to cross
the gap between different areas of expertise and to act beyond the boundaries while
remaining accountable to each side: by encouraging a flow of useful information, they
permit an exchange to take place while maintaining the authority of each side, in order
to provide a better knowledge and understanding of a situation characterized by
uncertainty. Though never formally proved, this hypothesis is widely accepted based
on the observation of existing boundary organizations. Through a multi-agent
simulation, it is possible to assess their impact on the diffusion of opinions among
experts. This virtual interaction of heterogeneous agents based on a model of
continuous opinion dynamics over two dimensions, shows that boundary organizations
have a significant quantitative impact on the diversity of opinions expressed and the
number of experts agreeing to each emerging position.