PolicyWISE enters its next chapter with new funding and a new strategy
PolicyWISE is entering its next chapter, with new investment from Dangoor Education supporting an ambitious new strategy for comparative policy research, cross-nation learning and better policymaking across the UK and Ireland.
For the past three years, PolicyWISE has brought policymakers, researchers and practitioners together to learn from different approaches across the UK and Ireland.
The idea behind our work is simple: we can make better policy when we look beyond our own borders and learn from what others are doing.
That has meant bringing governments together, sharing comparative evidence, building policy and research capability, and creating opportunities for people working across research, policy and practice to learn from one another.
Why now?
The policy landscape is changing.
English devolution is gathering pace, governments and parliaments are tackling many of the same challenges, and there is a growing need to share evidence, expertise and good practice across governments.
Over the next phase, we will strengthen our work on intergovernmental relations, mental health and wellbeing, violence against women and girls and better policymaking. We will also continue to respond to new challenges where learning across nations can add something useful.
Our new values reflect how we want to work: collaborative in how we work, curious about what we can learn and ambitious about the difference we can make. And we will aim to be inclusive, innovative and responsive in how we do it.
Backing our next chapter
Dangoor Education has backed this vision with a second round of core philanthropic funding.
Since our inception in 2023, The Open University has been awarded over £2m in funding from Dangoor Education to establish and run PolicyWISE, including a new round of funding in 2026.
The new investment will help us deepen relationships across governments, parliaments, universities and the wider policy community, and create more opportunities for researchers and policymakers to use comparative evidence with confidence.
A new way to learn with PolicyWISE
Learning and capability-building will be an important part of our next phase, and we are starting with the launch of our first online course, Understanding and Engaging with the Governments and Parliaments of the UK.
The course is a practical introduction to policymaking across the UK’s four nations. It will help learners understand how the different systems work, navigate policy processes and build the confidence to engage with policymakers and communicate research and evidence effectively.
Enrol on the new PolicyWISE course
What comes next
This next phase is about building on what we have learned, growing our partnerships and making PolicyWISE’s comparative expertise useful to more people.
We will have more to share over the coming months.
In the meantime:
- Read more about PolicyWISE and our work on the PolicyWISE website.
- Enrol on our new online course.
- Follow PolicyWISE on LinkedIn.
- Get in touch if you would like to explore working with us.
Shared challenges. Comparative insight. Better policy.