Contact: Dr. Christopher Tyler, Centre for Science and Policy
Mentor: Nancy Bocken, Engineering
Academic research which is relevant for informing government policy usually has a narrow set of obvious policy applications. On closer inspection much of this research would also have relevance to a wider range of policy areas. For example, research on ecosystems may be obviously applicable to the work of Defra (Department for Environment and Rural Affairs), but it also has interesting implications for a range of other government departments, such as DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change), DfID (Department for International Development), CLG (Department for Communities and Local Government), DfT (Department for Transport), DH (Department of Health), DfE (Department for Education) and HMT (the Treasury).
In stage one of the project, members of the team will work together to identify a research programme in the University of Cambridge (or elsewhere in partnership with Cambridge) that has interesting policy implications. They will interview the researchers in an attempt to identify the full range of policy implications and define the questions that the researchers are answering.
In stage two of the project, the team will speak to policy makers from those areas identified as relevant, in particular seeking information on the sorts of questions that policy makers are interesting in having answered. Part of this process will be about identifying further policy overlaps and interests and communicating these to both the researchers and the policy experts.
It is expected that the i-Teams will help to build meaningful connections between researchers and policy makers, as well as generate interesting results on the motivations of researchers and policy makers.