Glasgow Social Sciences Hub

 

On 5 March the College of Social Sciences Research Support Office and the Centre for Public Policy were delighted to host a development day for researchers and professional services staff from across the university about improving their engagement with UK Parliament. Led by Dr Sarah Weakley at the Research Support Office, we welcomed staff members from UK Parliament to share their expertise on some key engagement mechanisms that researchers should be familiar with and consider in their research impact journey.

Sarah Carter-Bell from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology’s (POST) Knowledge Exchange Unit introduced POST as a producer of evidence for Parliamentary business on issues currently being discussed and topics of policy relevance identified by horizon scanning work.

The first workshop she led was on how researchers can contribute their expertise to POSTNotes, research notes produced that present a comprehensive overview of a topic of Parliamentary interest. The second workshop she led was on All Party Parliamentary Groups, informal cross-party groups in Parliament comprised of participants from all sectors, organised to discuss specific topics of interest.

Dr Amy Creese from the House of Lords Committee Office provided a valuable overview of the work of committees both in the House of Lords and the House of Commons. She detailed the role of committees holding the government to account, how a committee inquiry functions in both Houses, how academic evidence and expertise is used in inquiries, and the best ways to get started.

You can find a list of committees and Inquiries on the UK Parliament website.

Finally, Dr David Torrance from the House of Commons Library shared the vital role of the library in producing research briefs on topics of interest for Parliament and responding to requests from MPs as they prepare for debates and other parliamentary business. The library’s forward-looking evidence-curation work for research briefings, led by the library team, is a particularly valuable pathway for researchers to contribute.

Five key points from the day’s presentations

1. Parliamentary engagement is for all researchers, at any stage
   
   The work of parliamentary bodies responsible for providing research evidence to MPs and the general public (like POST and the House of Commons Library) is improved when the best research evidence and a diverse group of academic voices reaches them. All the speakers at this development day stressed the desire for researchers to get in touch as experts in their field, even if a current research project may not be ‘finished’. The expertise held by researchers based on years of study is precisely what Parliament is seeking when writing briefings, including from early career researchers.
   
   
2. Find out which committee(s) work on your subject and see if there are any inquiries upcoming, check if POST is seeking expertise on your subject, or suggest a POSTNote topic
   
   Once researchers decide they’d like to engage, the next step is to see what formal mechanisms cover their subject regularly – House of Commons and House of Lords committees are a good place to start, and researchers can search all committees here and see if there are any inquiries that would benefit from their expertise. POST also regularly publishes calls for experts to contribute to POSTNotes, which you can find here under ‘Future Research’. You can also get in touch with POST if you have an issue that you think will be pertinent to parliamentary business but is lacking a suitable research note to inform the work.
   
   
3. Reach out and tell Parliament why you, why now
   
   Committee inquiries are a great way to introduce yourself to Parliament via their formal inquiries, but you can also send a personal email to the committee clerks to introduce yourself. This can further note that you are available to provide evidence in an oral inquiry session or provide any additional evidence to the committee (including background papers).
   
   When reaching out to committees or to POST for the first time, state why you are getting in touch (e.g. a recent inquiry, report, POSTNote call for contributors), your area of expertise and two to three sentences of key insights which are relevant to their work and an invitation to collaborate more. Once you sharpen your skills communicating your work and expertise succinctly, you will be better able to quickly respond when an issue arises or when you’d like to proactively reach out yourself.
   
   
4. Start small and informal by getting in touch with the Secretariat of an All Party Parliamentary Group
   
   Our experts highlighted the role that All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) can play when you are just starting your policy engagement journey, as these groups are ways to find out who some of the key stakeholders inside and outside of Parliament are on your topic and provide another forum to share your expertise. There are over 700 registered APPGs that cover very specific topics – it is likely your work engages with at least one or more – so it may be useful to take a look at the APPG register yourself and get connected with the Secretariat. Simply email the Secretariat connected to the APPG and they will ensure you are made aware of upcoming meetings, most of which are now hybrid or fully online, that you can attend or contribute to.
   
   
5. Learn about all the other ways to engage in with Parliament
   
   The Knowledge Exchange Unit at POST, who were key contributors to the formulation of this development day, have curated a very useful webpage for Parliament on all the ways that researchers can engage. They provide how-to guides, deliver trainings themselves, and help facilitate other engagement mechanisms that weren’t covered in detail in our event, such as POST Fellowships, Thematic Research Leads or committee specialist advisor roles.

 

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If you are a University of Glasgow researcher and would like more support for policy engagement, please get in touch with Dr Sarah Weakley, Research and Knowledge Exchange Lead at the College of Social Sciences.

First published: 8 April 2024