Science Policy Workshop & Seminar
Written by Ciara Higham
In April 2023, I undertook a 3 month UKRI Policy Internship at the Government Office for Science (GO-Science). I went in thinking I knew quite a bit about science policy. I had read up a lot online and thought I was pretty clued up. One thing the internship made me realise was that learning about science policy (and how academics and policymakers interact) is something you learn a lot more from speaking to those directly involved.
I decided to run a workshop in collaboration with the LIFD ECR forum so that ECR’s could get a chance to both network with those involved in science policy but also learn from those directly involved in science policy.
I firstly gave a talk “What is science policy? An ECR perspective”, with the aim to give a crash course on science policy and delving into what I learnt during my internship and sign posting to relevant courses, pages, websites, internships. Following on from this we had a panel discussion with LIFD deputy director Prof. Cath Noakes, University of Bristol PhD student and previous GO-Science policy intern Matimba Swana and Policy Leeds’ Juliet Jopson. We discussed challenges and benefits of engagement between academia and policymakers with specific advice for ECR’s interested in policy.
Signposts to some of the material discussed in the workshop:
Applications for the UKRI Policy Internship (closing 2nd October 2024)
Royal Society of Biology Science Policy Newsletter
University Policy Engagement Network
