What I learned about knowledge transfer with policymakers during my parliamentary fellowship

In 2021, I embarked on a Parliamentary Academic Fellowship at the House of Commons Library. This scheme provides an opportunity for researchers to use their knowledge and skills to carry out projects in UK parliament and learn how research feeds into practice and decision-making. 

I drew on teaching material at The Open University and my own research to create a knowledge-transfer project on the gender pension gap. This looked at the differing outcomes in retirement faced by men and women in the UK and it helped create a new research area on the gender pension gap in parliament.

The result was that, in 2023, the UK government started annual reporting of the gender pension gap for the first time.

You will have already done the hard work within your research, but how do you use this to create a successful knowledge-transfer project?

This is a process that, most obviously, occurs when you use your hard-won research to transfer knowledge to policymakers. 

Usually, you’ll get a valuable benefit in return, either by learning more about the constraints that policymakers work under or an aspect you had not even considered when you delve into policy details. For example, I had not realised how the lack of data on pension-sharing orders in divorce cases hampers understanding of the gender pension gap.   

Knowledge transfer here becomes genuine knowledge exchange – like a conversation – and this benefits your own research.

So, how do you create a successful knowledge transfer project? Here are my five top tips.  

1. Know who are you writing for

The first step is to consider your audience. Are you writing a policy brief for politicians, civil servants, policy researchers or special advisers? Remember that your audience will usually be very pressed for time and may be interested in very specific things.

So, tailor your research to the questions they want answering. If the Treasury Committee wants to explore the tax system after coronavirus then it’s not much use submitting evidence on the introduction of income taxes during the Napoleonic wars.

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2. Stick to deadlines

Academics are weary of students who miss assignment deadlines because they forgot to set an alarm. So, don’t make the same error yourself. Policymakers have tight schedules. When a parliamentary committee issues a call for evidence, it will specify a cut-off point for submissions. These deadlines are fixed and if you want to be read or heard, pay attention to dates.

Be prepared to respond quickly as well. A policy issue may suddenly flare up and policymakers crave immediate research. You might be in the lucky position of being the one person or team who has done the exact research. Best to send this now rather than spend time polishing off your latest paper.

In my case, I joined the House of Commons library around the time UK parliament’s Work and Pensions Committee had launched a Saving for Later Life inquiry and one of the inquiry topics was on the gender pension gap. So, here was a perfect opportunity for me to use my teaching and research on the gender pension gap to plug that hole. The opportunity for knowledge transfer was there to be seized.    

3. Keep it simple

Policymakers have many competing demands on their time. So, make it as easy as possible for them to grasp the key issues quickly by writing in a simple and clear fashion. They won’t be experts in all areas. Sometimes specialist language is needed but it’s helpful to avoid jargon and unnecessary acronyms if you can.

For those interested in engaging with parliament, the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology has a host of helpful resources for researchers, PhD students or knowledge mobilisers.

There are many guides on writing simply. Take your pick. A personal favourite is George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”.

4. It’s a numbers game

Policymakers often hanker for a statistic or piece of data in a briefing. Well-chosen data or statistics can really enliven a briefing. This is like a dropped stone that creates ripples of understanding.

Here’s a statistic I used in my work on the gender pension gap: in 2023, the gender pension gap was 35 per cent, more than double the gender pay gap of 14.3 per cent.

5. More than words can say

T. S. Eliot claimed that the best poems communicate before they are fully understood. Visual aids can do the same. If your research uses numerical data, then presenting this in an attractive graph or chart can help. If your work is mainly qualitative, photos or illustrations can create an attractive briefing.  

Many of the above tips are reactive – using your research to respond to a need from policymakers. This forms the reality of many, perhaps most, knowledge-transfer projects.

But, it’s also possible for researchers to shape the policy agenda by highlighting issues not previously considered by policymakers. The above tips can be easily adapted for that as well – write simply, think about numbers, present attractively. 

What will differ is where the channels arise. Rather than responding to a specific call for evidence, be proactive by publishing blogs, producing briefing papers or convening seminars. Good luck!  

Rajiv Prabhakar is senior lecturer in personal finance at The Open University.

The Open University was shortlisted for Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2024 #THEAwards. A full list of shortlisted candidates can be found here.