This 28-page report by the Institute for Government (IfG) sets out how universities, research councils and funding councils can improve the way they support policy engagement. 

Many academics struggle to contribute to policy making, meaning that policy influence is often left to those in central government. This report offers five ways in which universities, research councils, and funding councils can better support policy engagement. 

The first way is to make academics easier to find. Policy officials need to be aware of those in the academic world who can help them with policy problems. Universities, research councils and funding councils can address this issue by funding the development of tools, and acting as brokers to make it easier to find relevant academics.

Next, it is important to train academics to engage with policy. Many are not aware of how policy is made, how to influence it, or who to approach in government. The report recommends that universities include training on engaging with the policymaking process, and prioritise funding for it.

Thirdly, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), research councils and funding councils should provide dedicated funding for policy engagement. This ensures that the Research Excellence Framework (REF) provides universities with the incentive to expand policy engagement. In particular, creating new funding streams to support the secondments of academics into government can lead to deeper interactions between academics and officials.

The fourth recommendation is to reward policy engagement. This is a time consuming activity that many academics feel they have time to do, or are not given time out of research to do. So, universities should include ‘external engagement’ within their career frameworks in order to encourage policy engagement as part of academics’ career paths. 

Finally, it is necessary to measure what is working. There is currently a limited understanding of which methods to improve evidence use. UKRI, research councils and funding councils need to fund research

To summarise, this report provides guidance for universities, research councils and fundings councils to improve academic policy engagement.