£5.9 million multi-university project will drive better use of academic evidence in public policymaking

Teesside University is working alongside nine university partners on a £5.9 million collaborative initiative helping academic expertise inform public policy.

The initiative has been awarded £5 million by Research England, with additional funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and UKRI, which will support the development and scaling of the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN).

UPEN is hosted by UCL and is a UK-wide network of organisations who support evidence use in public policymaking.

It connects UK policymakers with researchers from over 110 university members, as well as providing support, best practice and collaborative opportunities for policy engagement. Over the next four years, UPEN will undertake new programmes of work including:

• Improving UK universities’ ability to engage with policy organisations and policymakers
• Supporting place-based policymaking by strengthening engagement between universities, regional, and local policy organisations
• Embedding citizen engagement and community-driven approaches to policymaking
• Creating more sustainable and resilient engagement models

The funding will support UPEN’s evolution from a voluntary network into a sustainable organisation, shoring up the future of academic-policy engagement in the UK.

The investment sees Teesside University work alongside partners UCL, as well as the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Durham, Huddersfield, Leeds, Nottingham Trent, Southampton, Insights North East, and the Wales Centre for Public Policy at Cardiff University.

Alongside university partners, UPEN will work with the Institute for Community Studies, the Institute for Government, and Yorkshire Universities signalling the importance of collective activity for effective policy engagement.

Kieran Fenby-Hulse, Professor of Civic Imagination, Engagement and Impact, and Director of Teesside University’s Institute for Collective Place Leadership, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to utilise the research expertise of Teesside University and our academic partners to make a real impact on how policy decisions are made.

“Together, we bring to bear a wealth of evidence-based research, will be of enormous value supporting our civic partners make informed decisions and implement policies which will positively impact our communities.”

On the award, Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England, said: “The need for reliable evidence which can inform public debate and policy has never been greater.?With increasing pressure on public finances, it is also vital that local and central governments can be confident that their policy interventions will be effective and successful – and academic expertise has a crucial role to play in that process.”?

UCL’s Vice-Provost Research, Innovation & Global Engagement, Professor Geraint Rees, said: “University research offers a wealth of insight to inform complex policy questions, and recent years have seen increased policy demand for academic expertise. Effective engagement requires universities to work collectively in order to respond to policy needs. Universities and policymakers need to engage with each other as effectively as possible to improve outcomes for citizens, so we’re delighted that this funding from Research England will put this engagement on a firmer footing.”

The ESRC have provided their support with £300,000 to support participation of universities across the UK in UPEN Programmes. A further £588,000 has been awarded through UKRI’s strategic theme, ‘Creating Opportunities, Improving Outcomes’ to develop work on regional evidence needs.

This strategic investment from Research England follows their £4 million award in 2020 for Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE), a four-year multi-partner project also led by UCL in partnership with the Universities of Cambridge, Manchester, Northumbria and Nottingham. This project highlighted the value of collaboration between universities for more effective engagement and led to new ways for researchers to understand evidence needs in policy, across the UK Parliament, Senedd, the Scottish Parliament and regional authorities.

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