PolicyWISE’s approach to Research

A core pillar of PolicyWISE’s vision is the need to produce a robust evidence base that can be used to expand policy engagement and knowledge exchange across the four nations of the UK.

In order to share policy ideas and find solutions to some of society’s cross-cutting challenges, we must ensure that relevant research is comparative from the outset, and that researchers understand the opportunities and disparities of engaging with the different governments of the UK.

Although the same policies may not be applicable across all four nations, comparative research, and through it policy learning, can help identify the conditions in which solutions can work and where they may need to be adapted to the context of an individual nation.

In my role as Research Associate at PolicyWISE, I will be managing the project’s core comparative policy research offer, as well as providing research support to the wider team and stakeholders. I am looking forward to working with, supporting and learning from other researchers across the OU and beyond to develop comparative and cross-nation approaches to many fields of enquiry.

Coming from an applied policy research background myself – language education and policy in an era of language learning decline in the UK – I can recognise the benefit such work can bring to sharing ideas and innovation across contexts.

Over the next couple of months, we will be establishing and developing PolicyWISE’s core research function with this vision in mind, working across three broad pathways:

• Supporting knowledge exchange through government-led collaborative projects.

PolicyWISE has engaged with all the governments of the UK to identify three policy priority areas that will benefit from comparative policy research: Artificial Intelligence, Retrofitting and Active travel. PolicyWISE will bring together policymakers, researchers and wider stakeholders to develop comparative research and facilitate policy learning across these areas.

• Supporting knowledge exchange through research-led partnerships

Where research is already being carried out that has a comparative approach, or has the potential to achieve impact across the four nations, PolicyWISE will support knowledge exchange across the project lifespan, from design through to policy engagement.   

• Generating knowledge and conducting research on the role and benefits of comparative policy research.

Through our experience working with policymakers and researchers, PolicyWISE aims to help develop knowledge and evaluate the role of comparative policy research in the UK.

As the only knowledge initiative to lead comparative policy research across the nations of the UK, PolicyWISE is in the unique position to encourage and support research and researchers to think comparatively from the outset, broadening the impact of their work and the benefit they can bring to UK society.