{"id":183,"date":"2026-03-18T09:56:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exeterpolicyblog\/?p=183"},"modified":"2026-03-18T10:42:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T10:42:54","slug":"bridging-policy-and-academia-a-collaboration-between-researchers-and-civil-service-members-from-across-the-south-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exeterpolicyblog\/2026\/03\/18\/bridging-policy-and-academia-a-collaboration-between-researchers-and-civil-service-members-from-across-the-south-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridging Policy and Academia: A Collaboration Between Researchers and Civil Service Members from across the\u00a0South West."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Earlier this month, researchers from&nbsp;universities&nbsp;across the region came together with policy professionals&nbsp;to&nbsp;share best practice&nbsp;and explore&nbsp;different perspectives on academic policy engagement. Representatives from the Universities of Bristol, Bath, Plymouth, and Exeter, and Bath Spa University were joined by policymakers from the Department&nbsp;for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the&nbsp;Office for National Statistics (ONS), and more.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>What are the key steps&nbsp;for using research to&nbsp;generate&nbsp;impactful policy change through research?&nbsp;How can we&nbsp;facilitate&nbsp;connections between communities&nbsp;so we can&nbsp;better understand&nbsp;and benefit from&nbsp;one another\u2019s&nbsp;knowledge? Can researchers do more to highlight the relevance of their work and bring this to the attention of policymakers? Can policymakers do more to communicate with&nbsp;researchers&nbsp;and implement evidence in practice?<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hosted by the&nbsp;South West&nbsp;Policy Network and&nbsp;Policy&nbsp;South West,&nbsp;the day-long&nbsp;event&nbsp;sought&nbsp;to answer these questions and more.&nbsp;Academics&nbsp;interested&nbsp;in policy engagement and knowledge&nbsp;mobilisation&nbsp;were invited to connect with&nbsp;local policy professionals&nbsp;to&nbsp;better&nbsp;understand&nbsp;both the challenges and opportunities involved in creating&nbsp;policy impact.&nbsp;Attendees&nbsp;were particularly keen to learn about current&nbsp;policy priorities&nbsp;and&nbsp;identify&nbsp;effective ways of collaborating to address them&nbsp;within the&nbsp;South West&nbsp;context.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Insights were shared by&nbsp;Civil&nbsp;Servants based in the&nbsp;South West, including&nbsp;staff from the&nbsp;ONS, the Ministry&nbsp;of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and DEFRA,&nbsp;which&nbsp;represents&nbsp;the largest&nbsp;government department presence&nbsp;in&nbsp;the region. Their&nbsp;presentation&nbsp;looked at place-based initiatives&nbsp;for developing policy presence outside of London,&nbsp;and the models that could be used to implement this.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowledge mobilisers from the&nbsp;universities&nbsp;within the Policy&nbsp;South West&nbsp;Network&nbsp;then&nbsp;shared their&nbsp;perspectives&nbsp;on supporting connections between academics and policymakers, while&nbsp;a&nbsp;representative&nbsp;from the <a href=\"https:\/\/upen.ac.uk\/\">Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN)<\/a> highlighted the organisation\u2019s ambitions for supporting the&nbsp;use&nbsp;of evidence in Government.&nbsp;&nbsp;The session highlighted the many ways&nbsp;that&nbsp;university&nbsp;policy professionals&nbsp;support&nbsp;researchers&nbsp;to engage&nbsp;with&nbsp;policy&nbsp;makers,&nbsp;through&nbsp;capacity building, funding schemes, communications,&nbsp;and intelligence gathering.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Policy\u00a0professionals\u00a0and\u00a0researchers were\u00a0later\u00a0invited to share their perspectives\u00a0in the form of a panel discussion. This drew\u00a0on the\u00a0policy development\u00a0expertise\u00a0of\u00a0Dr\u00a0Betheney Wills,\u00a0marine biologist\u00a0and knowledge broker\u00a0for DEFRA,\u00a0and\u00a0Dr Joanna\u00a0McLaughlin, clinical lecturer with the University of Bristol and the NHS.\u00a0Professor Richard Thompson\u00a0OBE FRS, Director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.plymouth.ac.uk\/research\/institutes\/marine-institute\">Marine Institute<\/a> at the University of Plymouth, and\u00a0Professor\u00a0David Strain, University of Exeter Associate Professor and Thematic Research Lead for the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/post.parliament.uk\/\">Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology\u00a0(POST)<\/a>\u00a0shared their experiences as policy-engaged academics. Chaired by Professor Rob Anderson\u00a0from the University of Exeter,\u00a0the discussion invited\u00a0panellists to reflect on their experiences working across policy and academia, and\u00a0the challenges and opportunities this\u00a0presents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final session of the day&nbsp;facilitated&nbsp;attendees to network, sharing their interest in&nbsp;subjects ranging from&nbsp;how to build&nbsp;an evidence basis, to&nbsp;future collaboration.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe end of research is the start of the journey\u201d&nbsp;as Professor Strain described it.&nbsp;Researchers and policy professionals&nbsp;have the skills and experience to help bring research evidence into regional and national policy. The&nbsp;South West&nbsp;is home to a wide range of&nbsp;expertise,&nbsp;hosting policy professionals from crucial government departments, and ground-breaking multidisciplinary research.&nbsp;Despite the&nbsp;different perspectives and languages of Higher Education versus policy settings,&nbsp;research and policy can inform one another through concerted collaboration, and a shared&nbsp;understanding of community needs.&nbsp;By bringing policy professionals and researchers together, it is hoped that a culture of communication&nbsp;and knowledge mobilisation can continue to grow and support policy development across the region.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Evidence Week is an annual showcase of research from institutions across the UK, inviting policymakers to hear about ground-breaking work, and the value this can bring to policy development. This year, two teams of University of Exeter researchers shared their work with MPs, peers, and a range of Parliamentary staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2305,"featured_media":185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[57],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bridging Policy and Academia: A Collaboration Between Researchers and Civil Service Members from across the\u00a0South West. - Policy@Exeter blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exeterpolicyblog\/2026\/03\/18\/bridging-policy-and-academia-a-collaboration-between-researchers-and-civil-service-members-from-across-the-south-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bridging Policy and Academia: A Collaboration Between Researchers and Civil Service Members from across the\u00a0South West. - Policy@Exeter blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Evidence Week is an annual showcase of research from institutions across the UK, inviting policymakers to hear about ground-breaking work, and the value this can bring to policy development. 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