• Home
  • About us
  • Events
  • Next Event
  • Blog
  • Photos
  • Links
  • RESOURCES
Science in Policy

Science in Policy go to the BES Policy Workshop

4/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
On the 8th April 2014, six members of the Science in Policy steering committee (shown in the photo left: Bex, Cat, Kirsty, Laura, Kim and Catherine) attended a ‘Policy Training’ workshop in London, run by the British Ecological Society. The workshop promised to be a great way to find out more about the UK policy making process (particularly ecological and environmental policy), and an opportunity to gain skills to effectively communicate science to policy decision makers. The day was a mixture of talks and interactive exercises, with speakers from BES, NERC, RSPB, POST (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology) and Collaboration for Environmental Evidence. The day was highly informative and engaging, and I think we all learnt a lot (I certainly did!)

One of the main points that I took away from the workshop is that communicating your science to policy makers isn’t as difficult as you might think! One of the first things we did at the workshop was an exercise that involved identifying barriers and challenges that people face when engaging with policy making processes, and it was quite reassuring to find that most of these challenges identified were common to many researchers at the workshop. As the day went on, it became apparent that these barriers can be overcome and that there are actually many routes to communicate research to policy makers. One relatively straightforward way of doing this is through responding to calls for evidence in select committee inquiries, and several of the workshop’s speakers encouraged us to do this. Evidence submitted from outside organisations and members of the public is used to scrutinise the content of a Bill. Communicating one’s research through this channel means it is included in the evidence base for policy making. A list of current inquiries for the Science and Technology Committee can be found here, so if you are interested, keep an eye out for inquiries relevant to your research.


From the workshop, I got the sense that it is a time of change at the science-policy interface. Policy is becoming increasingly evidence based, with politicians embracing science rather than overlooking it. This transition was nicely summed up in a quote from Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Commission, on Radio 4s Life Scientific a few weeks ago (you can catch the whole interview on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03y0qcr):

“My colleagues within the European Commission, many of whom never thought they would have to pay attention to science or had a very relaxed attitude towards evidence….I notice that they are now identifying opportunities for evidence because a policy based on evidence is easy to defend, robust, it will last a longer time”

The workshop also drove home the need to link research to the wider world, with funding becoming increasingly focused on research that has economic and societal impact. So even if your area of research isn’t directly related to policy, it’s important to make these connections to wider world issues.

All in all, an educational and enjoyable day out for the SiP ladies!


By Kim Mullins     



Kim is a PhD student in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield. Follow her on Twitter @kim_1801

Picture
Relaxing after a day of science policy!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Tweets by @ScienceinPolicy

    Author

    We are a group of early career scientists, technicians and teaching staff from the Faculty of Science at the University of Sheffield. We have a common interest in the relationship between science and policy making.

    Our blog posts represent individual opinions only and not those of Science in Policy or the University of Sheffield. Primarily, the blog is a tool to facilitate healthy debate and discussion.

    Archives

    June 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly