UPDATED Lessons from PolicyWISE's first Cross-nation Policy Learning Roundtable: Scotland

The summary and full reports following the roundtable convened in Edinburgh in May 2024 to examine cross- nation policy learning and challenges over the last 25 years, and to look forward to improved comparative policy research and knowledge exchange.

The event brought together senior policymakers, analysts, academics, think-tank colleagues, education leaders, inter-governmental officials, and economists – from across Scotland, and beyond.

This was the first in a series of roundtables across the nations, with events in Wales, Northern Ireland, and England to follow through 2024 - 25. Our aims in hosting this roundtable, and the series, is to help inform and improve how policy learning and development works across nations and administrations, how comparative policy research, data and researchers can contribute, and the use and development of cross-nation networks and communities.

Takeaways included:

The challenge for policymakers, think-tanks, and researchers to move from being “devolution aware” to “devolution able.”

The importance of data comparability, whilst recognising policy and nation difference.

The need for multi-lateral leaning – avoiding both“Anglophobia” and England as the “norm.”