Government and academia: How academia’s relationship with government has changed

In recent years, universities, research councils and learned societies have made substantial investments in building capacity for policy engagement. For example, Research England awarded £3.9 million to the Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE) project, which ran from 2020 to 2024, with a further £6m matched from university partners. ⁸⁸ Chaytor S, Parker R and Stevenson O, The Art of the Possible: Catalysts, collaborations and capabilities in academic-policy engagement, CAPE, 2025, www.cape.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/CAPE_ TheArtofthePossible_Final_Interactive.pdf  Similarly, Research England has awarded the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) £5.9m and UPEN has secured additional funds from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (£300,000) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) (£582,000) across 2025–28. ⁸⁹ Universities Policy Engagement Network, ‘UPEN awarded £5.9m to drive better use of academic research in policymaking’, 4 June 2025, retrieved 16 June 2026 upen.ac.uk/news/upen-awarded-5-9m-to-drive-better-use-of-academic-research-in-policymaking  Increased funding and attention are also visible across regional academic–policy engagement initiatives, resulting in a more professionalised and better-connected research–policy landscape that is increasingly geared towards producing policy-relevant outputs and sustaining relationships, rather than relying too heavily on ad-hoc opportunities for outreach.

Several factors have driven the increased focus on policy engagement, including the annual allocation of Research England’s Policy Support Fund, which provides time-limited funding to universities seeking to strengthen academic–policy engagement. ⁹⁰ Bea L and Chaytor S, The Use of the Policy Support Fund in Universities, UPEN, 2025, upen.ac.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2025/07/The-use-of-the-Policy-Support-Fund-in-universities-v2.pdf  Another significant lever for encouraging academic–policy engagement has been the Research Excellence Framework (REF), ⁹¹ UK Research and Innovation, ‘Research Excellence Framework’, 24 February 2026, retrieved 16 June 2026, www.ukri.org/who-we-are/research-england/research-excellence/research-excellence-framework  which is designed to assess research quality. ⁹² UK Research and Innovation, ‘Research Excellence Framework 2029’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, https://2029.ref.ac.uk  Because higher REF ratings translate directly into greater recurrent research income, ⁹³ National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement, ‘The Research Excellence Framework (REF)’, 19 January 2026, retrieved 16 June 2026, www.publicengagement.ac.uk/resources/guides/research-excellence-framework-ref  universities have been incentivised to allocate resources to research that meets the government-defined ‘high impact’ criteria. In REF 2029, 25% of the assessment will be assigned to the ‘engagement and impact’ element, shifting from a sole focus on impact in previous rounds. This approach will look not only at end products (such as a research project), but also at how researchers build relationships with external stakeholders, including policy makers. ⁹⁴ UK Research and Innovation, ‘Section 6 – Engagement and Impact guidance’, 10 December 2025, retrieved 16 June 2026, https://2029.ref.ac.uk/guidance/section-6-engagement-and-impact-guidance

However, academic institutions and networks still face challenges in ensuring that the supply of policy-relevant evidence maps on to departmental needs and is accessible to decision makers at the right time. While policy engagement efforts continue to grow in academia, the civil service has not always been able to keep pace – this is a missed opportunity. Government should focus on leveraging the growing volume of policy-facing research to foster better-evidenced, more robust policy making.

Research institutions have improved the infrastructure required to engage with policy makers

More research institutions have set up policy engagement infrastructure, such as dedicated units or teams. These teams provide training and support for academics to enable them to:

• produce policy-relevant outputs 
• convene policy-focused events 
• translate research for non-academic audiences 
• broker relationships with policy makers.

A mapping exercise published in 2022 identified at least 46 university policy engagement bodies across the UK and, since then, more have been set up. ⁹⁵ Durrant H and MacKillop E, ‘University policy engagement bodies in the UK and the variable meanings of and approaches to impact’, Research Evaluation, 2022, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 372–84, retrieved 26 February 2026, https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvac015  Beyond allocation of impact-related research funding and a growing sense of universities’ civic mission, better funding to establish academic–policy engagement initiatives and greater collaboration between research institutions and government have helped facilitate this expansion.

National-level collaborations have helped create longer term infrastructure and shared learning. The CAPE project played an important role in evaluating capacity-building approaches and testing mechanisms at scale, with its learning subsequently embedded into sector co-ordination efforts. ⁹⁶ 9 Chaytor S, Parker R and Stevenson O, The Art of the Possible: Catalysts, collaborations and capabilities in academic-policy engagement, CAPE, 2025, www.cape.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/CAPE_ TheArtofthePossible_Final_Interactive.pdf  UPEN, set up in 2018, has continued to grow as a central forum for academic–policy engagement, now including more than 120 UK institutions and running programmes focused on professional development and place-based engagement practice. ⁹⁷ Universities Policy Engagement Network, ‘Universities Policy Engagement Network’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.upen.ac.uk  More recently, the Evidence Exchange (EvEx) consortium, which the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) at the University of Cambridge leads, was launched in 2026, with the ESRC awarding it £3.75m to make access to research expertise and evidence easier for officials, including by creating policy-to-research exchange opportunities for civil and public servants. ⁹⁸ Centre for Science and Policy, ‘New national network: Evidence Exchange to enable civil and public servants to learn and connect with research organisations’, 7 January 2026, retrieved 16 June 2026, www.csap.cam.ac.uk/ new-national-network-evidence-exchange-to-enable-civil-and-public-servants-to-learn-and-connect-with-research-organisations; University College London, ‘New national network: Evidence Exchange to connect civil and public servants with researchers’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/news/new-national-network-evidence-exchange-connect-civil-and-public-servants-researchers

Regional infrastructures have also expanded, adding place-based capacity that can be tailored to local policy contexts, including through UPEN’s ‘place’ work and the CAPE project’s report looking into models for and challenges in regional engagement. ⁹⁹ Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement, Building a National Agenda for Regional Academic–Policy Engagement, 2024, www.cape.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Building-a-national-agenda-for-regional-academic-policy-engagement-Feb-24.pdf  For example, the Yorkshire & Humber Policy Engagement & Research Network (YPERN) operates as a ‘network of networks’ across Yorkshire universities, embedding policy fellows to support evidence flows between universities and local and strategic authorities and aligning with the Yorkshire and Humber Policy Innovation Partnership (YPIP). ¹⁰⁰ Yorkshire and Humber Policy Engagement and Research Network, Year 2 Regional Report: Connecting the region through university policy engagement, 2025, https://y-pern.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ YPERN-Y2-Regional-Report-ACCESSIBLE-SPREADS-V6.pdf; Yorkshire and Humber Policy Engagement and Research Network, ‘Yorkshire Policy Innovation Partnership’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, https://y-pern. org.uk/ypip  Similarly, Insights North East (INE) brings together universities and regional partners (including local government and NHS bodies) to translate academic research into policy, convene networks and build capability through training and fellowships aligned to regional priorities such as health, climate action and inclusive growth. ¹⁰¹ Insights North East, ‘Insights North East’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, https://insightsnortheast.co.uk/ what-we-do/about-us  Also notable are the Health Determinants Research Collaborations of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). These are funded partnerships between local authorities and academic institutions that build research capacity within local government to generate and apply evidence on the wider factors affecting health, supporting more effective, evidence-informed policy making to reduce health inequalities. ¹⁰² National Institute for Health and Care Research, ‘Health determinants research collaborations’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/what-we-do/core-workstreams/working-with-partners/ local-authorities/health-determinants-research-collaborations

Knowledge mobilisation has also become a bigger priority. Universities – including University College London (UCL) through its Knowledge Broker Academy, ¹⁰³ University College London, ‘Why participate in UCL’s Knowledge Broker Academy?’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.ucl.ac.uk/public-policy/why-participate-ucls-knowledge-broker-academy  the University of Oxford through its Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) ¹⁰⁴ University of Oxford, ‘About the Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN)’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.ox.ac.uk/research/collaborate-with-us/policymakers/about-the-oxford-policy-engagement-network-open  and the Universities of Manchester, ¹⁰⁵ University of Manchester, ‘About us’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.policy.manchester.ac.uk/about-us  Bristol ¹⁰⁶ University of Bristol, ‘PolicyBristol’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.bristol.ac.uk/policybristol  and Edinburgh ¹⁰⁷ University of Edinburgh, ‘Research engagement with public policy’, 12 February 2024, retrieved 16 June 2026, https://research-office.ed.ac.uk/research-engagement-with-public-policy  among others, through dedicated teams – are developing knowledge mobilisation capacity. Beyond national-and regional-level networks, dedicated knowledge mobilisation organisations also serve as useful intermediaries. Despite varied labels (such as knowledge brokers, evidence intermediaries and boundary spanners), ¹⁰⁸ Breckon J and Boaz A, Evidence Intermediary Organisations: Moving beyond a definitional morass, Transforming Evidence, 2023, retrieved 26 June 2026, https://transforming-evidence.org/resources/evidence-intermediary-organisations-moving-beyond-a-definitional-morass  they all act as a ‘transmission belt’ between research and policy by developing close working relationships with decision makers in government. ¹⁰⁹ Ibid.

The increase in policy engagement activity has sometimes led to duplication and confusion

While the growth of policy–research engagement is, overall, a positive story, it has also made the landscape more crowded and complex. Competitive drivers within higher education institutions, including the desire to drive innovation and secure institutional advantage, have fed into the proliferation of initiatives. Engagement infrastructures operate at different levels and because many of these bodies do similar things, their offers can overlap, and visibility can be uneven across institutions and policy areas. While getting access to relevant available research is important, there is a risk that some engagement efforts are simply designed to push existing research for the sake of boosting the profile of a specific researcher or institution, some of which may not be entirely relevant for policy makers.

For government, a fragmented engagement landscape with a “rudderless mass of activity” ¹¹⁰ Oliver K, Hopkins A, Boaz A, Guillot-Wright S and Cairney P, ‘What works to promote research–policy engagement?’, Evidence & Policy, 2022, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 691–713, retrieved 26 June 2026, https://doi.org/10.1 332/174426421X16420918447616  can create confusion for officials who want clear entry points to academia and may struggle to identify the most relevant entry routes and contacts. Some duplication in researcher engagement is inevitable and even necessary where place, policy area or capability needs differ. But where it reflects a lack of co-ordination rather than purposeful tailoring, it can make the system harder to navigate for both academics and officials.

There is already evidence of work being undertaken to co-ordinate activity, especially through UPEN. Future efforts should prioritise clarity and co-ordination, including better signposting, defined points of contact and increased alignment across initiatives. Given risks that funding pressures and competing priorities may, in the future, lead to a decline in resourcing for policy engagement initiatives in higher education institutions, focusing efforts on more co-ordinated and streamlined programmes would be especially beneficial for the wider landscape.

The Covid pandemic and AI have sparked more interest in rapid evidence synthesis

A major shift in the past decade that cuts across the whole landscape is the rising demand for rapid, policy-ready evidence – particularly since the Covid pandemic, when decision makers needed timely evidence synthesis rather than ‘long-form research’. ¹¹¹ Dzimwasha V, Davison N and Hodgkin R, Rapid Policy Making: How civil servants can make effective policies under pressure, Institute for Government, 2025, retrieved 26 February 2026, www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/ publication/rapid-policy-making  This has reinforced research institutions’ move towards placing more emphasis on producing accessible outputs and enabling quicker evidence flows between researchers and officials.

New and evolving collaborations are increasingly oriented towards this need for speed and usability. For instance, the newly set up Evidence Exchange (EvEx) consortium aims to create a shared ‘digital campus’ and national infrastructure that makes policy-to-research exchange opportunities more visible and joined up, while introducing co-creative problem-solving formats such as policy labs and collaborative hackathons as well as intensive and cross-disciplinary discussion forums to facilitate collaboration between researchers and policy makers. ¹¹² 25 Evidence Exchange, ‘Opportunities for learning and research exchange for civil and public servants’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.evex.ac.uk; University College London, ‘New national network: Evidence Exchange to connect civil and public servants with researchers’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.ucl. ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/news/new-national-network-evidence-exchange-connect-civil-and-public-servants-researchers  Similarly, UPEN’s ‘connect’ programme includes experimentation with a rapid-response offer designed to support tight-deadline evidence synthesis and to develop shared practice in knowledge mobilisation. ¹¹³ Universities Policy Engagement Network, ‘Practice’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.upen.ac.uk/ programmes-practice  Together, these initiatives signal a shift towards building a service layer that helps turn academic capability into outputs that officials can use under tighter timelines.

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has accelerated interest in whether evidence synthesis itself can be made faster and scaled. Globally, the $126m investment into AI-enabled evidence synthesis to accelerate progress on the United Nations’ sustainable development goals – which the Wellcome Trust and partners of the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC) Funders Interest Group fund – has recently championed developments on this front. ¹¹⁴ United Nations Office for Partnerships, ‘US$126 million investment announced to power AI-enabled evidence synthesis for accelerated SDG achievement’, 21 September 2025, retrieved 16 June 2026, https:// unpartnerships.un.org/press-center/us126-million-investment-announced-power-ai  Another prominent example is the Mobilising Evidence Through Artificial Intelligence and User-informed Synthesis (METIUS) consortium, backed by investment of £11.5m from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which aims to develop open-data infrastructure to deliver faster, policy-tailored summaries of current knowledge and evidence to policy makers. ¹¹⁵ Queen’s University Belfast, ‘Queen’s to lead £11.5m AI-driven project to transform global policymaking’, 22 September 2025, retrieved 2 July 2026, www.qub.ac.uk/News/Allnews/2025/ai-led-project-transform-global-policymaking.html  Similarly, the innovation agency Nesta is developing an AI tool called Policy Atlas, which aims to enable policy users to research, access summaries and visualisations of policy evidence and conduct simulations of policy interventions. ¹¹⁶ Nesta, ‘Policy Atlas: harnessing AI to improve policy design’, (no date) retrieved 16 June 2026, www.nesta.org. uk/project/policy-atlas-harnessing-ai-to-improve-policy-design

These examples are part of a broader pattern where funders and networks are increasingly exploring technology-enabled synthesis approaches that can keep up with expanding volumes of research and evidence and tailor them to policy makers’ needs. But it is worth noting that even as AI-supported tools develop, they will not remove the need for closer engagement between researchers and policy makers to define the right questions, interpret findings appropriately and ensure outputs and actions are credible.

Universities’ and funders’ higher level of investment has undoubtedly helped increase the accessibility of research for those in government, particularly for rapid policy making. But these improved conditions do not automatically translate into better evidence use if government lacks the capacity to absorb and apply it effectively.

The next chapter examines existing government mechanisms for researcher engagement and opportunities to further strengthen knowledge exchange in line with policy demands.