Policy Engagement
From informal enquiries to formal inquiries, in consultation or sustained collaboration, policy engagement enables research and policymaking communities to improve public policy by making the most of their evidence and expertise.
Oxford’s medical research community contains a wealth of expertise and evidence relevant to health and care. By sharing their knowledge and insight with policymakers locally, nationally, and internationally, our researchers work with partners in the policymaking community in and outside the UK to facilitate access to, and uptake of, the best available research evidence to shape responses to health and care challenges.
Policy Engagement offers researchers opportunities to maximise the potential impact of their work. By engaging with the policy process researchers deepen their understanding of the value and usefulness of their research. They promote their work to the communities who can make good use of it; identify and shape further research needs and strengthen their case for funding.
Researcher Stories: Policy Engagement
Find out how Jamie Hartmann-Boyce has worked with the UK Government and the Action on Smoking and Health charity to investigate the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as a stop-smoking aid, and whether they have lower negative health impacts than smoking.
Dr Howard Ryland is a Senior Clinical Researcher in the Department of Psychiatry, recently he spent three months at Westminster writing a policy briefing (POSTnote) for MPs and Peers. Read about Dr Ryland's life as a Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellow.
© Dr Howard Ryland is a Senior Clinical Researcher in the Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University and an OPEN Fellow.
Your Department Research Impact or Engagement lead will be able to help you with the first steps, supported by the Medical Sciences Division Public and Policy Engagement Facilitator. Across the University as a whole, there is support available from the Policy Engagement Team and a network of hundreds of researchers and professional support staff who share their experiences through the Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN). Membership of OPEN can also make it much easier for policy makers to find you.
Find out how to join OPEN, and discover the guidance and resources provided by the Policy Engagement Team.
Read a collection of policy engagement experiences.
Who can help me?
Naomi Gibson — University of Oxford, Medical Sciences Division