Chris Tyler, writing in the Guardian, posted an article today called Top 20 things scientists need to know about policy-making.

The article,  a response to an article in the Guardian called 20 things that politicians should know about science, provides an interesting list of useful insights into policy-making for the research community.

“Scientists blame politicians for failures when science meets policy-making, when in truth the science community needs to do much more to engage productively with the people who actually make policy.” Chris comments and follows nicely with a quote from Fiona Fox, the director of the Science Media Centre, “the media will ‘do’ science better when scientists ‘do’ the media better”.

The R2A team felt that this overview was a little ‘flakey’ on the issue of evidence, and that it would be really interesting to offer a response to this that focuses on policy-making in the development context or within a particular country in the global south. What would your 10 things that scientists need to know, in the context of your work, about the use of evidence? Let us know in the comments field below or via info@researchtoaction.org.

Well worth a look… Top 20 things scientists need to know about policy-making developed by Chris Tyler and his fellow science advisers at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.