This second session, led by Dr Sarah Foxen from the UK Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit, outlined how academics can work with Parliament to help shape policy and maximise the impact of their research.
What is the UK Parliament?
Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and is comprised of:
- The House of Commons – the lower chamber, made up of some 650 elected Members of Parliament (MPs).
- The House of Lords – the upper chamber, made up of appointed or hereditary peers.
- The Monarch – a largely ceremonial role, held by the King or Queen of the day, to approve parliamentary bills and bring them into law.
Parliament is distinct from the Government, which is made up of those MPs and Peers chosen by the Prime Minister to lead the day-to-day running of government departments. In contrast, Parliament’s role is to represent the people, scrutinise government decision-making, make and shape laws, debate important issues of the day, and check and approve government spending.
Why should I engage?
Members of Parliament, and their staff, value the support that the research community can offer to their work by providing evidence and expertise on topical issues and policy challenges.
For academics, engagement with Parliament can support:
- Policy influence – contributing to parliamentary scrutiny of government policy, and helping to shape the legislative agenda.
- Research reach – raising the profile of research, and broadening dissemination.
- Career development – opening up new perspectives and research questions, diversifying research activities, and gaining new skills.
Pathways for engagement?
Research is used across Parliament in a variety of ways, and there are several routes for academics to engage:
Select Committees are cross-party bodies in both the House of Commons and House of Lords that function to provide scrutiny on a wide range of matters. Select committees regularly run inquiries and invite written and oral evidence submissions to inform their reports. This provides an established role for researchers to engage with parliament and impact policy, as governments will often act on inquiry recommendations. However, researchers can also work with Select Committees to propose their own inquiries, host a committee visit, provide a private briefing, or collaborate formally as a special advisor. A full list of parliamentary select committees, along with calls for evidence, can be found here.
The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) is Parliament’s science advice mechanism, which aims to provide Members with reliable, impartial research. POST proactively look for new evidence to inform their briefings to parliamentarians, including contributions to their POSTnote and POSTbrief series. These short briefings synthesise evidence and information on topical issues, advances in research, and policy developments to support parliamentary business.
Parliamentary Libraries in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords provide impartial information and briefing services to Members, providing a wide range of analysis on legislation or policy issues that are currently the focus of parliamentary business. Academics are encouraged to work with the libraries by contributing to research briefings, constituency case work, data dashboards, and debate packs.
All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) provide an informal structure within parliament for members to collaborate of special interests or particular topics. They have less power than select committees, and activity levels can vary. However, they can provide researchers with opportunities to present at meetings, collaborate on reports, provide briefings, respond to a call for evidence, or propose an inquiry. A register of APPGs, along with relevant contact details, can be found here.
Engaging with Members. Researchers can also engage directly with individual Members and their staff to inform their constituency work, their contributions to parliamentary debates and questions to Government, private member’s bills, and scrutiny of draft legislation. Academics can use Hansard as one way to identify Parliamentarians that may be interested in their areas of expertise.
Parliamentary fellowships offer academics, across all career stages, the opportunity to work formally with Parliament. Currently these include:
- POST PhD Fellowships – in which sponsored PhD students can work at POST, usually for three months, to contribute to briefings.
- Parliamentary Academic Fellowship Scheme – in which researchers use their knowledge and skills to carry out projects in UK Parliament.
- Parliamentary Thematic Research Leads – in which mid-career researchers are embedded part-time in Parliament to share their academic expertise and experience.
Top tips for engaging with Parliamentarians
- Make your work interesting: Provide a hook, and demonstrate why your research is timely. Include worked examples, visual content, and practical recommendations.
- Make your work user-friendly: keep it short, always provide contact details, and be mindful of using partisan language or academic jargon.
- Meet politicians where they are: understand their challenges, their motivations, and their perspectives on your research.
- Do your research: follow parliamentary business, read briefings and reports, and attend events to better understand the context.
- Subscribe to UK Parliament's Knowledge Exchange Unit weekly round up to learn about the latest opportunities for researchers.
Next steps
The UK Parliament Knowledge Exchange Unit suggested some immediate ways in which you can begin to develop your influence in Parliament:
Provide written evidence to a Select Committee inquiry.
Contact an APPG.
Introduce yourself to the Parliamentary Libraries.
Participate in a POSTnote.
Approach a Member.
Apply for a Parliamentary Fellowship.
Brush up on the latest news.
Watch for opportunities.
Sign up to the weekly newsletter www.parliament.uk/keunews
You can begin to build this into your policy impact plan.
ESRC-funded PhD student, Matty McKenna shared insights as part of this session based on his UKRI Policy Internship. Read his presentation here.
Future policy impact training sessions
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