Improving public policy making

CSaP’s mission is to improve policy making through the more effective use of evidence and expertise. Embedding scientific expertise within government is essential for tackling the large-scale policy challenges that lie before us. Much of our work highlights general-purpose tools to improve government policy making — including access to data, structural improvements in government departments, and decision-making techniques.

The challenge of improving general-purpose policy making — as opposed to improvements relevant to a single domain — is a common theme across CSaP's events. In the past year, CSaP events which fit this theme have focussed on the role of the Chief Scientific Advisor in the UK government, future directions for the research-policy interface, and the toolkits which have been developed to improve academia-policy engagement.

2024 Christ's College Climate Lecture

The 2024 Christ's College Climate Lecture was held in collaboration with the Centre for Science and Policy, the Cambridge Zero Policy Forum, and the CSaP Policy Fellows Climate and Sustainability Cluster. Sir Patrick Vallance, Government Chief Scientific Adviser 2018–2023, stressed that while scientific advisers should not dictate policy, their insights are crucial for framing evidence for decision-makers. There are four criteria that scientific advisers must consider. Is the evidence adequate? Is it understood? Is the advice framed in a policy-relevant way? And, how can science be used for monitoring and evaluation? Sir Patrick critiqued the common misconception among politicians of scientific evidence as ‘absolute truth’, noting that scientific judgment changes with new evidence. Furthermore, scientific advice must vie for attention with other advice given to politicians — such as that given by special advisers. Here, the framing of evidence is key. For example, time-series data is most intuitively represented in the form of a graph.

Future directions for the research-policy interface

At the 2024 CSaP Annual Conference, Hetan Shah, Chief Executive of the British Academy, chaired a panel on future directions for the research-policy interface — with a focus on how the UK government could spark growth and investment in the high-tech sector. William Cullerne Bown, former adviser to Chi Onwurah MP, highlighted the need for increased capital to boost the high-tech sector — moving more quickly as new technologies emerge, and pushing more resources into high-tech firms and industries. Andrew Westwood, Professor of Government Practice at the University of Manchester, emphasised restructuring governance to support growth, advocating for a new industrial strategy that includes place-based policies. Anna Vignoles, Director of the Leverhulme Trust, called for significant investment in human capital to capitalise on the UK’s substantial strength in fundamental science research in producing innovation. The subsequent panel discussion emphasised the need for the UK to revise its approach to economic policy and governance structures to effectively respond to global pressures and foster sustainable growth.

Toolkits for academic-policy engagement

At the 2023 CSaP Annual Conference, Dr Amy Beckett chaired a panel discussion on how the Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE) project has been exploring ways to strengthen engagement between universities and public policy. Dr Ine Steenmans’ team (in collaboration with Nesta) developed the Engaging with Evidence Toolkit, a reference document incorporating interactive activities to determine what evidence and expertise is needed. Designed to be revisited throughout the engagement process, it helps ensure alignment across participants. Dr Olivia Stevenson co-authored a report on Co-Production in Regional Academic Policy Engagement, which outlines optimal conditions for fostering both academic and citizen policy engagement, emphasising relational spaces and ethics of care. Nicola Buckley outlined the benefits of Policy Fellowships hosted by universities, which not only refresh policymakers' perspectives but have impacted policy development, with a third of participants noting specific policy impacts.