What we do

Rapid response capability

We work at pace to support policy analysis, development, and consideration. We work with governments and parliaments, and the wider policy community, to support rapid responses informed by comparative research and knowledge exchange. This includes:

  • Connecting research and researchers to policymakers.
  • Facilitating and contributing to workshops, panel discussions, media interest and roundtables.
  • Producing short policy briefs.

Comparative and collaborative analysis and understanding

We are unique in taking a comparative UK and Ireland approach to all our work, and fortunate to have partner universities in each nation. We are a partner of choice for collaborative and comparative projects, and we work across The Open University’s four nations. This includes:

  • Supporting inter-governmental policy analysis and development.
  • Building comparative research and knowledge exchange capacity.
  • Producing the only comparative guide to policy language and terms used in, and across, the UK nations and governments.

Open societal challenges

We are proud to collaborate with The Open University’s Open Societal Challenges Programme. The OSC aims to empower all its research teams to mature their ideas in tackling some of the key societal challenges of our time within the three themes of sustainability, tackling inequalities, and living well. We work together to:

  • Develop OU research expertise relevant to its four nations mission.
  • Drive impact generated from research, specifically in the policy space.
  • Enhance knowledge exchange activities across the four nations. 

PolicyWISE publishes two-year research plan

The purpose of our Research Plan is to ensure that we have a robust evidence base that can be used to expand policy engagement, policy learning and knowledge exchange across the four nations. Our research aims to support policymakers in the UK and Ireland to identify solutions to shared societal challenges, understanding what works and in what context.

As well as carrying out comparative policy research and analysis, our role at PolicyWISE is to support and facilitate our community of researchers across the OU and beyond to develop their capacity and capability for comparative research, expanding the societal impact of their work.

Our plan has three main aims and pathways of work. These represent different models and channels for achieving our ambitious and innovative mission and vision. They capture the different roles we play in supporting the creation of a robust evidence base – researcher, facilitator, convener and more – always foregrounding the collaborative and connected nature of our research work.

We hope that over the next two years, our research will start to shine a spotlight on the value that comparative policy research can bring and help lay the groundwork for improved four nations policy learning.

To learn more about our plan, or to get involved with our research work, please contact policywise@open.ac.uk