Blog post by Leo Webb
Halfway through their year-long fellowship, we caught up with two UKRI Policy Fellows from Exeter, Dr. Katharine Boyd (Criminology) and Dr. Stefan Siegert (Mathematics and Statistics), to see how they were getting along. Check out this blog to learn more about their backgrounds before they began their fellowships.
The fellowships have allowed the two researchers to co-design research with their host organisations in order to inform policy, as well as to help improve the exchange of knowledge between policymakers and academic institutions.
Dr Katharine Boyd has been working with the College of Policing, specifically applying behavioural science to develop and implement coordinated interventions in a pilot study, aiming to reduce sexism,misogyny and racism in police force organisational culture. She is directly responsible for developing and piloting a ‘pulse check’ intervention, whereby regular information is collected from staff and shared via a dashboard with supervisors in order to encourage supervisors’ to take action by increasing their awareness of cultural problems and their responsibility to build capacity within their team.
Dr Boyd describes how being imbedded within a government department allows for greater understandings of institutional challenges and how her research can address these issues. She also highlights the benefits of working with influential people in the College who facilitate coordination with police forces for trialing the pilot, whilst acknowledging the practical benefits and difficulties of working remotely.
With respect to outputs, Dr Boyd states how the outcomes of her work will be important in contributing to evidence-based practice, whilst accepting the adoption of the interventions in the future are contingent on the results of the evaluation of the pilot.
She furthers this point about the nuance of academic policy engagement by saying that there is: “value of just seeing how to do research that the government is looking for, and thinking about how to position the research that you want to do so it is relevant to policy makers.”
Dr Stefan Siegert has been based in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and specifically in the land modelling team. Within this post so far, he has experimented with computer models for designing land use policies for the UK, to incorporate the future requirements of achieving net zero goals, tree planting, urban development, and agriculture to name but a few.
Dr. Siegert reported that he has enjoyed the independence the fellowship has offered him. He also acknowledged the challenges involved in working with confidential government data, which tends to be more restricted compared to academic research, where data is often more openly available.
In terms of outputs, he plans to publish findings on uncertainty analysis of tree planting strategies academically, and is also considering outreach activities, such as a workshop or hackathon, to further encourage policy engagement and facilitate the project’s longevity and impact.
In response to his ability to tackle 21st Century challenges, Dr Siegert said: “I’m an applied mathematician and statistician with particular interest in environmental problems. Historically, I’ve mostly worked on weather forecasting and climate modelling, so [the fellowship has introduced] new aspects that fit in very nicely with my general interest in environmental problems.”
Both researchers commented positively on the networking aspects of their respective fellowships, both in terms of connecting with individuals within their teams, but also the career development benefits of working as part of large governmental organisations and the ties they have to other non-academic agencies.
The academics also highlighted additional support and the usefulness of policy workshops run by the Institute for Government, with Dr Siegert commenting that: “receiving these workshops from real experts on [policy engagement] is very useful. So that’s definitely a benefit that will be helpful for me further down the line.”
Overall, both have found their respective posts very beneficial and would recommend to academics interested in pursuing future policy fellowships that they clearly define their roles, responsibilities, and remits at the beginning of their secondment, in order to establish productive working relationships within governmental departments.
You can learn more about the current network of 44 UKRI policy fellows here.