Policy engagement and Government use of academic research

Thursday 21^st June, 1.00-2.30pm,  Agriculture Ag 1L06

You are invited to a policy engagement seminar with invited speaker Dr Catherine Haddon from Institute for Government, a leading think tank working to make government processes more effective, in helping senior politicians and civil servants to think differently and bring about change in terms of policy decision making.

Catherine is keen to pass on lessons from the work they are instigating in connecting researchers and government policy teams, and is looking at the mechanisms and culture in government to help engagement. She would also like to learn more about what our academics are doing at Reading and how we embrace government with our research, along with advising on how to get work into think tanks and getting career experience in the world of political research.

Seminar agenda

1. Introduction by Dominik Zaum, Academic engagement with policy

4. Catherine Haddon, Institute for Government- Discussion of policy mechanisms to reaching policy makers, what is currently going on within government and other areas to encourage engagement, experiences of academic engagement with policymakers, policy engagement and impact.
5. University of Reading examples of policy engagement: Routes to policy, challenges and lessons
   1. Professor Kath Ryan (Social Pharmacy), APPGroup Infant Feeding
   2. Professor David Oderberg (Philosophy), Parliament legislation protecting freedom of conscience in health care
   3. Professor Simon Potts (Centre for Agri-Environmental Research), DEFRA National Pollinator Strategy
   4. Professor Chris Collins (Environmental Science), DEFRA and Devolved Administrations
6. Closing remarks

Apologies for the short notice of this event, but please do feel to pass this information on to your research groups or students who may benefit from learning about policy engagement experiences.

Places are limited therefore, if you wish to attend, please e-mail Chris Anderson in the Research Deans’ Office on c.j.anderson@reading.ac.uk.