Getting Social Science Research into
the Evidence base in Government
A summary of Barbara Doig’s ‘Pathway to Impact to
Central Government - A Route Map’
Introduction
Both academic researchers and government analysts have long recognised the contribution of social
science research to government policy. Recently a range of reports by government, academia and
research funders have placed an even greater importance on getting government and academia to
work better together. With this in mind, the ESRC commissioned Barbara Doig, a former senior
civil servant, to identify successful approaches and barriers to getting social science research into
the evidence base in government through a small survey. This summary focuses on her practical
recommendations that academic researchers can take to help secure impact with central government.
A Willingness to Engage
Both the academic community and government are equally motivated to engage with one another
about academic research and its potential for impacting policy.
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ome academics demonstrated a real entrepreneurial drive when highlighting their research as
policy relevant. This is through a range of project outputs and activities and showed considerable
efforts to disseminate appropriately. One respondent commented: “Of course the project was
rooted in policy — otherwise why bother?”
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ivil servants voiced a willingness to support academics through providing comments at an early
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stage in projects sitting on advisory groups and assisting with the dissemination of findings into
government departments.
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he findings suggest that central government civil servants follow academic research more
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closely than many academic researchers realise:
Around two fifths of academic researchers interviewed thought that their project or related work
had secured an impact in central government. By impact the report means the findings have been
properly discussed with the right people in government — an important stage in the journey to more
substantive impact. But civil servants demonstrated a far greater knowledge and knew the research of
about two thirds of the academic researchers.
Tactics to Engage Central Government
Successful engagement stems from a wide range of dissemination activities with government
researchers over an extended period.
Planning the journey from research into policy at as early a stage as possible helps to maximise the
number of opportunities to engage with government researchers at the right time. Timing is crucial
and depends on the stage of the policy process with the greatest opportunities for impact on policy at
the earlier stages.
Speaking at Policy-relevant Events
Attending events to give papers both policy-relevant or methodological events that include
appropriate civil servants in the audience. “You get the best out of policymakers if you get them to
attend a conference,” noted one researcher. There is an often under-appreciated but long-term benefit
accrued through presenting your research findings at events attended by a range of stakeholders
from outside academia. In addition, seminars and conferences hosted by government departments
were more effective at securing engagement with government researchers than events hosted by
universities.
Publishing Widely
Increasing awareness about your research is beneficial. Along with the full range of academic
publishing outlets from peer-reviewed journals to books; academic researchers noted the following
other publishing opportunities as helpful to engage with government researchers:
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edicated web sites about your project and its findings;
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releases about your new findings help your work get noticed via media coverage.
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Academics found university and research funders’ press offices provided helpful support; and
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ummaries of your research findings presented in the appropriate language for different groups
and in a user-friendly way. Combining various publishing efforts rather than focusing on one type of publication increases the
chances of your research being discussed in the policy process.
Using Intermediaries
Organisations such as the British Academy, the Academy of Social Sciences, research funders (eg
the ESRC) and learned societies (eg British Society of Criminology) act as intermediaries between
academia and government. Among other activities, they provide neutral spaces for interactions, and
publish distinguished research contributions to the evidence base for a range of social policies. Using
these communication channels can help secure impact for your work.
Tapping into other existing research networks that group together related research and are followed
by civil servants can be beneficial. For instance, the broad research networks formed under the
umbrella of the ESRCs major Investment of funded research. Or getting your research into a
government Department Knowledge Management system such as the Analytical Knowledge
Store maintained by the Department of Work and Pensions.
Social science research funders including Nuffield, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Sutton Trust
and Paul Hamlyn Foundation can also help secure impact through, for example, the influence of their
leading researchers or responding quickly to niche issues.
Various initiatives by the ESRC help develop academics’ understanding of policy relevance and
securing knowledge exchange. These include knowledge exchange opportunities and events such
as the Festival of Social Science and the ESRC Public Policy seminars and the All party Group on
Social Science as well as publications such as Society Now, Britain In and the ESRC evidence
briefings .
Finding a Champion for Your Research
Involving government interests from an early stage in your project by inviting relevant policymakers
to be on the research project’s advisory group can be effective. It is important to specify the duties
and responsibilities of advisory group representatives such as disseminating the research within
their department. In some cases such engagement results in individuals becoming champions of
the research and acting as knowledge brokers to facilitate access to government interests. Such
engagement also develops some sense of shared ownership of the project and this can make a huge
difference to the project’s success.
Making the Most of All Possible Connections
Maintain contact with former students that you have supervised especially if they go on to work in
government in areas related to your research. Participating in government policy reviews or sitting on
government advisory committees help make connections.
Identifying Key Contacts in Government
Successfully securing impact for your work in central government requires a good understanding of
who uses social science research in government.
It can be a challenge to identify who within government departments are the best people to contact.
However, there are several resources that can help:
Individual Civil Servants
Dods People a commercial online services can help identify senior civil servants. The Governments
website data.gov.uk is useful for who does what in Whitehall and beyond. There you can see
organisational chart for the UK Civil Service.
Government Departments
Several different government departments can be interested in a single research topic
asneither academic disciplines nor interdisciplinary approaches map onto departmental policy
interests. Government department web sites offer varying amounts of information regarding
the departments’ research interests and relevant contacts. It can also be useful to sign up for
publication alerts from government department’s web sites as these will keep you informed about
the department’s research interests. The collaboration and partnership section of the ESRC website
outlines the government organisations and contact details.
Government Professional Networks
he Government Social Research Service (GSR) which has lead responsibility for social science and
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its contribution to the evidence base for policy. Only a fifth of the academics surveyed were confident
about their knowledge of GSR members’ roles and activities.
The purpose of GSR is to :
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rovide government with objective, reliable, relevant and timely social research;
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Support the development, implementation, review and evaluation of policy and delivery; and
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nsure policy debate is informed by the best research evidence and thinking from the social
sciences
mong the academic researchers surveyed there were mixed reports on how well the GSR members
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facilitated the research contribution to the evidence base.
Economists in government were often seen to have a higher profile. Members of the Government
Economic Service play key roles in government departments influencing policy from providing data
to appraising new schemes. Summaries of key issues for economists in each government department
and some contacts can be found here.
Devolved Government
The academic researchers surveyed found engagement with the Devolved Administrations was often
close than with Whitehall. The following web sites highlight their research interests:
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Scottish Government
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Welsh Government
Difficulties in identifying contacts in government are exacerbated by the amount of churn within
government departments due to changes in departmental responsibilities, internal organisational
changes and changes in professional reporting structures. Interestingly, some academic researchers
used the churn as an opportunity to build new relationships with policymakers by regarding part of
the academics’ role to help new policymakers up the learning curve via regularly offering briefings to
new policymakers.
The ESRC funds the Placement Fellowship scheme which places an academic researcher within
government for a short period of time. Such schemes provide an excellent opportunity to make
contacts in government and gain insights into the differences between the respective work
environments, cultures and pressures in academia and government.
Building and Sustaining the Relationship
Building and maintaining relationships with government researchers and policymakers is key
to having research findings contribute to the evidence base for policies.
Build your professional and policy networks widely and systematically, and make these connections
sooner rather than later. Building such relationships requires resources so include your dissemination
strategy and its associated costs in funding applications.
Develop your personal skills to include those relevant to building productive relationships.
Presentation Skills
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resent your findings clearly and succinctly at events. “They like the killer slide,” noted one
academic. Government researchers were often frustrated by the inability of academics to
summarise their findings to the appropriate level.
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resent your work via the web. Government researchers also have to identify academic
researchers with particular expertise and knowledge, often to very short timescales. Therefore,
ensuring your research skills and research findings are easily found on your university’s web
site, and presented in an accessible way that is relevant to policymakers is essential to facilitate
government researchers to find you.
Respect the Role of Government Researchers
Strive for establishing mutual respect between academic and government researchers by
understanding the constraints that government researchers are under and their interests:
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The pressures civil servants are under is ... terrible and they work long hours.”
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The civil servants) “really have to sell to policy and pace was very quick.”
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he working environment in government is complex. For example, when a civil servant agrees
with policy advice from an academic, the civil servant needs to persuade others within the
Department or in other Departments, which may have different priorities and objectives. n G
overnment departments are more accepting of quantitative work over qualitative work, getting
value for money, analysing the costs and benefits of any potential policy, and have a focus on
innovation. n R
ealise that your research findings will be scrutinised from a different perspective. See this as an
opportunity rather than a threat..
Follow Up Engagements
Always ask for feedback. Academic researchers found it frustrating to never hear what happens after
their engagement and what impact there may have been.
Be realistic about your role. For example as one academic researcher said: “I am confident that the
research findings were communicated well and to the right people. I have gone as far as I can in an
interactive way and the findings were properly discussed.”
Difficulties to Overcome
Securing impact for your research with central government is not easy. Social science research
deals with complex issues which can challenge government and produce findings which are not
easy to translate into policy development. In addition, different perspectives, work environments,
cultures, and pressures between academia and government can generate barriers to relationship
building between academia and government.
More understanding and mutual respect for the activities, skills and differences between academic
and government researchers helps underpin long-term relationship building:
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overnment researchers may not appreciate the concurrent roles an academic researcher holds
in terms of teaching responsibilities, student supervision, maintaining or growing research
funding streams, and publishing in academic literature.
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cademic researchers may not appreciate the workloads and time constraints that government
analysts are under.
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cademics are more likely to have specialised interest in a research area over an extended
period of time which is clearly documented in their academic publication record. Government
researchers are more likely to move across several government departments and so develop a
broad rather than specialised expertise. In addition, the outputs of the knowledge brokerage
carried out by government analysts to secure evidence base for policy is largely invisible. The difference in views between award holders and government professionals on the scale of
impact suggests there is a disconnect between academic researchers and government. Some
academics suggested an impact on central government but their work was not known by the
relevant part of government. Equally some academics believed their work had no impact but
information was held by government departments.
Further information
This is a summary of Barbara Doig’s 2010 report on “Pathway to impact to central government: A
route map” funded by the ESRC. Doig’s findings are based on an analysis of ESRC documentation
for 28 ESRC funded projects, interviews with 28 academic researchers, 35 civil servants (mainly
government analysts and members of the government social research profession), and 5 Placement
Fellows from academia into government.
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ritish Academy (2008) Punching our weight: the humanities and social sciences in public
policy making.
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ouncil for Science and Technology (2008) How academia and government can work together
along with the Ten Point Action Plan response by the Department for Business Innovation
and Skills identify approaches to building relationships between academic research and
government policy making, building capacity to ensure more productive engagement and to
rate, value and reward the engagement. n B
enyon J & David M (2008) Developing Dialogue: Learned Societies in the Social Sciences:
Developing Knowledge Transfer and Public Engagement. Final report from the Academy of
Social Sciences and Economic and Social Research Council Project.
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esearch Information Network (2010) Government and research policy in the UK: an
introduction.