Dr Olivia Stevenson

Olivia co-leads the Practice strand of UPEN’s programmes in partnership with Insights North East (INE). In this role, she focuses on strengthening the UK’s academic-policy engagement infrastructure and leading strategic initiatives to improve coordination across the academic-policy ecosystem. Her work includes developing UPEN’s national brokerage capacity and collaborating with partners on the Areas of Research Interest (ARI) programme for regional governments. As well as integrating community-driven evidence through pilot initiatives and the Community of Practice on Knowledge Mobilisation and Impact.

Olivia has extensive experience in building collaboration between academia and public policy. She has played a leading role in several national initiatives, including co-founding UPEN, co-chairing UPEN’s EDI subcommittee, and co-leading UCL’s involvement in the £10 million (Research England Funded) Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE) project.

With a background in social geography, her work centres on knowledge mobilisation, inclusive engagement, and system innovation. Olivia is always keen to connect with partners interested in more inclusive and responsive approaches to research–policy engagement, and she’ll never say no to a good cup of tea.