Dr Eszter Szilassy, Senior Research Fellow, Bristol Medical School, recently joined our Engaging with Policy training session, run by the Industry and Parliament Trust and Huw Edwards MBE. In this blog, she shares her reflections, and some top tips. She highlights some key takeaways to begin engaging with policymakers, including: Making sure you have a good understanding of the policy landscape. Use mechanisms such as ARIs, parliamentary questions or consultations and inquiries to engage. Document your journey and any mentions of your research, this will help you evaluate your impact! If you are new to engaging with policy, Dr Szilassy's blog is a great reflection of where to begin.
How to enhance the policy influence and impact of our research?
We tend to believe that robust academic research informs, drives, and strengthens policy, and ultimately benefits society and improves outcomes. Yet many researchers remain confused about the practical steps of policy engagement, including how to reach major stakeholders involved in key decisions.
To understand how to engage Parliament in research, a group of Bristol academics attended a Parliamentary Seminar in Westminster. The seminar was supported by Policy Bristol and run by the Industry in Parliament Trust (IPT), an independent charity committed to facilitate engagement between Parliament and UK business. The seminar aimed to develop knowledge of parliamentary and legislative processes, with a focus on how Parliament uses research. It was designed to enable Bristol academics across different faculties to drive policy dialogues.
I am sharing what we learned in the hope they may be useful for other researchers interested in engaging with policy.
Inside Parliament: learning how to make policy impact
After an intriguing tour of the Parliamentary Estate, including observing a debate in the House of Lords on the significant End of Life Bill, we arrived to Portcullis House to learn how to better champion and embed evidence across policy. The seminar was led by Huw Edwards, Parliamentary & Government Training Consultant and former MP.
The session introduced the functions and process of Parliament and demonstrated clear opportunities to connect with the process. It showed simple ways in which we all could provide expert opinion to get our research findings noticed, land evidence for impact and track progress. The seminar shared examples of Parliamentary engagement with areas of research represented by participants and demonstrated access points for policy engagement. It also showed successful examples when well-targeted communication by Bristol colleagues, supported by Policy Bristol, led to application of research evidence.
Top tips for policy engagement
The seminar provided us with clear and actionable insights on the engagement opportunities across the policy process. These all can link in and rely on academics’ existing access, knowledge and leverage and could be relatively simple to try out and pursue. Here are a few we’ve taken away:
- To track where research can make a difference and to align your projects with official evidence gaps, look at Areas of Research Interest (ARIs). This will give insights into how your research could contribute to policy solutions on pressing issues.
- Schedule in protected time to stay up-to-date with key policy developments in your field. To track opportunities for input, look at interpretations and commentaries rather than legislation. Research briefings can be accessed through the House of Commons Library. Searching for key words relevant to your research about pre-legislative scrutiny, including oral and written Parliamentary questions and Select Committee evidence can highlight a wealth of opportunities for input.
- Respond to current government consultations as important means of influencing policy in your field. Policy papers offer valuable source of information for your topic of research. They provide good examples of how to structure a high-level summary to inform consultations.
- Submit evidence and be confident to propose recommendations (don’t wait for your publications). Browse list of committee inquiries that are currently asking for written evidence and follow top tips for submitting evidence to a select committee. Invite a cross-party select committee to meet your research group, a lab, a local clinic or a community group to voice and support your recommendations. Don’t assume they have read your written evidence!
- Find out who your Chief Scientific Advisor is and liaise with their offices to find out how they facilitate evidenced-based decision-making in the department relevant to your area, and how your research could link in with their current priorities.
- Ask your MP if they could meet and take your question or write to a minister about your question. Prepare a two-page summary supporting your question, with evidence and recommendations. Although the questions MPs can table are simple, they can ask a supplementary question to gain information held by departments, hold the Government to account, seek publicity and boost your evidence. You can track questions that have been tabled for written and oral answers.
- Timing is important. Oral and written questions are published up to a couple of weeks in advance in the Parliamentary order papers. Offering a short, snappy one-pager referencing your research to the office of the minister in support of their reply could be a timely intervention. Have a ‘ready to go’ document that you periodically update for such opportunities.
- Document any mentions for academic impact. Remember that anything stated by a minister in reply to an oral or written question becomes government policy. This can be useful to refer to when developing grant applications and seeking funding.
- Whitehall is moving away from civil service generalists and civil servants increasingly draw on academic expertise to inform advice and recommendations to ministers. Use your briefing to navigate entry points into government advisory groups and support meaningful engagement with policymaking.
Conclusion
Policy engagement is about exploring ways in which our research evidence can get into the hands of those who can use it to drive change. It is also about ensuring our work is accessible and visible to the most influential stakeholders in our field. There are more ways than we think to enhance the policy influence and impact of our academic work. The Parliamentary Seminar taught us some important and simple ways in which we can all try to connect with the process and make a difference.