Academic-policy engagement: a model for delivering place-based missions?

Posted on: 27 September 2024 by Dr Tom Arnold and Dr James Hickson in Blog

On 23 September, the Heseltine Institute, City-REDI (City-Region Economic Development Institute) and the Yorkshire and Humber Policy Engagement and Research Network (Y-PERN) hosted a roundtable fringe event at Labour Party conference in Liverpool with the aim of exploring how universities can contribute to place growth.

The invite-only event was chaired by former Labour minister and Director of the Centre for English Identity and Politics at the University of Southampton Professor John Denham. The session brought together combined authority and city mayors and directors, local authority leaders, MPs, leading academics and knowledge engagement specialists to explore the role of universities in contributing to the new UK government’s aspiration to ‘kickstart economic growth’.

Over recent years, an increasing number of policy institutes and networks have been established by UK universities, responding to devolution and a need for local and combined authorities to access interdisciplinary expertise to support their work. For example, the Heseltine Institute has worked with Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and other local partners for over a decade, providing support for evidence-based policy development, evaluation and engagement with the community. City-REDI has provided a similar function, with a focus on economic development for regional policy partners, including the West Midlands Combined Authority for the last 9 years. Y-PERN adopts a systems-based network approach to policy engagement, based on a memorandum of understanding between the region’s 12 universities, Yorkshire Universities, and all the local and combined authorities across Yorkshire and Humber. Regional policy engagement has been prioritised by many other universities and is championed by the Universities Policy Exchange Network (UPEN). Such initiatives complement the extensive policy engagement work universities carry out with national policymakers and political parties.

Academic-policy engagement institutes and networks are increasingly resonant across the higher education sector universities and valued by local and regional policymakers. They provide brokerage and a front door into academia, creating mechanisms for impact and collaboration to achieve civic aims. The roundtable discussion highlighted several opportunities and challenges associated with local and regional university policy engagement in the context of the policy priorities of the new UK government and devolved national, combined authority and local tiers of government.

Opportunities

1. Devolution. The creation of combined authorities and metro mayors in England over the last decade has been a driver of academic-policy engagement. As complex organisations designed to leverage support from across the public, private and voluntary sectors, many combined authorities have sought additional institutional intelligence from local universities. For academics and researchers involved in university knowledge exchange, these relationships present opportunities for insightful research as well as the chance to collaborate with communities to shape policy. For example, the significant investment by the Economic and Social Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council and Innovate UK, to create a series of Local Policy Innovation Partnerships across the UK highlights the central role UKRI sees for universities in addressing nationwide issues through local partnerships and place.
   
   
2. Flexibility. Universities can provide alternative forms of research support to consultancies and in-house combined and local authority teams. Access to a wide range of academic expertise and methodological approaches can allow universities to develop longer-term, relational forms of collaboration with a wide range of external policy-focused partners. In addition, the place-specific focus of many university policy engagement institutes provides opportunities to develop deep understanding of local and regional policy priorities and connect them to the national ‘mission’ of economic growth.
   
   
3. Experimentation. Combined and local authorities are places of experimentation and innovative approaches to policy development and implementation. Away from the ‘white heat’ of Whitehall and the often tumultuous atmosphere of Westminster, many combined and local authorities have created evidence-based systems and programmes aimed at building new economic models, ways of delivering public services and new routes to engaging with local communities. Universities are already incentivised to develop new forms of knowledge creation but the renewed focus on economic growth offers significant opportunities to better apply these in practical ways to enhance local and regional policymaking. As anchor institutions with significant impact on local economies, universities are also able to lead innovation and experimentation activities to drive growth on behalf of places.

Challenges

1. Skills. Producing research that is timely and impactful for policymakers can often stretch traditional academic skill sets, processes and structures. Researchers need to have a strong grasp of policy contexts and processes, understand their potential for impact, and how to communicate their research in a way that can be easily consumed by non-expert, time-poor audiences. Likewise, policymakers increasingly seek academic support that goes beyond identifying evidence of problems and instead helps to inform the creation of deliverable solutions. To ensure there is enough supply to meet this demand, universities need to consider how they develop specific skills pipelines to sustain effective engagement between research and policy. It was highlighted, greater opportunities for secondments between university researchers and knowledge exchange professionals and local and combined authorities may be one way to build both the capacity and the specialist skill sets required for this work.
   
   
2. Fragmentation. The complex nature of both the higher education and multi-level policymaking landscapes across the UK can make it difficult to collaborate and engage effectively. Universities are large, diverse organisations, making it difficult to maintain a ‘one front door’ approach for engagement. Within the higher and further education sectors, institutions have historically been incentivised to compete rather than collaborate and provide a single voice locally. Simultaneously, researchers are presented with multiple routes for engagement both within and across different tiers of government that can be difficult to navigate. Bespoke systems and structures may be required to join up this fragmented landscape and enable greater engagement, as well as collaboration between different organisations. This fragmentation is even more problematic in places currently without combined authorities, where a single point of contact for regional engagement may not be possible.
   
   
3. Misalignment. Collaboration between universities and policymakers can often be made difficult by a lack of alignment between the working cultures of these sectors. Academic workloads and teaching schedules can make it difficult for researchers to find the time or bandwidth necessary to engage fruitfully with policy processes. Academic funding and project timelines rarely overlap with the need to respond quickly to requests from policy partners. Likewise, career incentives within academia more focused on academic scholarship may not be in sync with the demand for fast evidence transfer within policy communities. A stronger understanding of how impact can be achieved through policy and practice-based research may help to overcome this and incentivise greater specialisation within academia on policy-oriented research. The University of Birmingham, for example, has introduced an Enterprise, Engagement and Impact pathway enabling career advancement through to professorial level for academic professionals operating in this space.

Next steps for academic-policy engagement

University and policymaker attendees agreed about the benefits of strengthening academic-policy engagement in the context of the expansion of devolution in England and the rest of the UK. For this model to become embedded in local and regional policymaking ecosystems, these institutions need to:

• Demonstrate deep understanding of local place-based policy agendas and strategic priorities – do not assume all combined authorities have the same perspectives or priorities.
• Be responsive to shifting priorities and understand that combined authorities are often responding to specific government requests or opportunities.
• Communicate research findings effectively to policymakers in simple, straightforward language and identifying practical policy insights.
• Nurture relationships and networks to move from one-off projects to strategic and long-term collaborations.
• Develop teams of researchers and engagement experts who can bridge the gap between academia, policy and practice.

Combined and local authorities, meanwhile, can:

• Develop shared, place-based strategies with higher education institutions so regional and local partners can understand where they can add value.
• Provide spaces and opportunities to discuss regional challenges and how academia can respond.
• Provide alternative procurement mechanisms which enable universities to co-create solutions.