Having spent most of my career leading civil service policy teams and working with Ministers, I really enjoyed hearing a range of perspectives on policy engagement from outside of government at the UPEN 2025 annual conference. I was also struck by Professor Dame Angela McLean’s observations about the ever-changing nature of the government agenda. Recognising that “The climate of our childhood is not coming back.”, she highlighted how this creates opportunities for research informed decision-making, joint with government, on adaptations and protections for the environment as well as decarbonisation actions.
This led me to reflect further, as we approach the one-year anniversary of the General Election, on how swiftly the national policy landscape has evolved. The newly elected government, which set out with a Plan for Change centred on five key Missions – safer streets, clean power, NHS improvement, economic growth, and opportunity for all – found itself forced to recalibrate in the face of rising geopolitical tensions and escalating trade wars. Priorities shifted sharply towards questions of national security, defence spending and deeper alignment with the EU.
This pivot underlines a central truth of modern governance; that policymaking must constantly adapt to a world defined by volatility and uncertainty. Governments are often forced to rework planned agendas in response to changing circumstances. As Dame Angela indicated, this unpredictability presents a powerful opportunity for the academic community to influence the policy agenda – beyond ARIs and Select Committees.
I’ve encountered these kinds of challenges many times in my career, for example, leading responses to cyber-attacks, soaring gas prices and challenges to energy security . In each case, I’ve seen first-hand how civil servants act as ‘knowledge mobilisers,’ connecting Ministers and senior leaders to the evidence and insight they need to make decisions under pressure. In those moments, there was a sharp awareness -among both Ministers and officials – that robust decision-making depends on diverse evidence that comes from beyond the walls of Whitehall. At those times the close relationships that my team and I had with the academics in their field were invaluable. Their behind-the-scenes contributions helped shape policy and ministerial thinking in real-time.
So below, I offer up four strategies to boost your chances of being included and influential, when uncertainty strikes, based on my own experience:
- Relationships before Roles
Build trusted relationships with individuals in government at a variety of levels before the crisis hits. In urgent situations and when response teams are formed, anyone from a team leader to a senior civil servant could be in charge. For example, whilst leading a response to a cyber-attack, I was very glad that my team had already had trusted links with relevant experts as it allowed me to obtain informal views on the impacts of the attack and our response when time was tight.
Actually, one of the strongest relationships I built originated out of a phone call I received out of the blue one day, from an academic who said they had noticed my team was developing legislation on cyber security and their team was doing some computer science research that they wanted to share with me. That phone call led to some significant joint work on cyber policy. That academic now works at the heart of science advice in government. - Communicate with Precision and Pace
When the unexpected happens, Ministers and officials may be grappling with system wide impacts or technical complexities. They need experts who can quickly distil complexity and adapt approaches and messages to fit the moment. For example, the post-Covid soaring gas prices affected businesses, householders, industry intensive industry and forced some energy companies into administration. With extremely large briefing packs for Ministers, each issue, including expert analysis, needed to be covered succinctly in one or two slides. Any work that was not succinct enough was at risk of deletion or relegation to the annex. - Read the Policy Room
Stay alert to shifts in the political and policy landscape. For example, a Minister’s speech from two weeks ago might now be framed differently due to new data, public sentiment, or political shifts. Revisit your evidence and tailor your message to reflect the changed positions. A clear message can give you direct access to the policy debate. For example, often when I received academic evidence, I would need to frame the findings to align to policy issue at hand and show how this input bolstered our policy decision making, but I didn’t have time to do this on every occasion. I do wonder how many opportunities are missed because of a lack of relevant messaging. - Think in ‘What Ifs’
Practise responses to unpredictable, unexpected events by putting your policy findings through ‘what if’ scenarios. This will show you’re agile, forward-thinking, and aware that the status quo is never permanent. For example, Russia’s war in Ukraine put the UK’s energy security at risk. Those experts who had already undertaken work looking at how UK energy markets might respond when security of energy supply was under pressure played a significant part in the debate. Some were even contracted to undertake additional analysis.
