How many of us, academics, know which policymakers to contact when we have fantastic findings? Most social research has the potential for direct policy implication. Unfortunately, a tiny fraction of it actually does.
Today, I have taken part in a workshop ‘Engaging with Public Policy: An Introduction for Researchers’, organized by the University of Oxford and led by William Pryor (Head of Policy Engagement, University of Oxford) and Eleanor Bayley (Deputy Head of Policy Engagement, University of Oxford).
At the workshop, the facilitators introduced us to something called the ‘shareholder mapping tool’. Basically, it is a table which helps researchers, working on impact-laden research, to map out potential stakeholders, which will benefit from or oppose to the results of the proposed study/project. A few questions that this tool asks are:
- What organizations might be the main stakeholders? (policymakers)
- Who is a person within the organization, whom you could contact?
- What is the impact of your research on the organization?
- What is the potential impact of this organization on your research?
- What are their stakes in the project/issue/research?
- What are the potential risks, benefits, and the mitigation plan for involving or not involving this organization?
- What is the engagement strategy vis-à-vis the stakeholder?
To be honest, when it comes to discussing policy implications in my papers, I rarely venture in my imagination further than ‘the results might be useful for such and such policy in countries A and B’. I never ruminated about what departments could be responsible for the ageing policy and its implementation. Moreover, I have definitely never had a thought about developing connections with someone specific within these departments. Apparently, for any social research to have an impact, it is better to think strategically about a precise policy engagement and stakeholder involvement plan before you even start a study.
Every day I learn something new.
