Member Spotlight: Shonagh McEwan, University of Edinburgh

Tell us about you

My name is Shonagh McEwan. I work at The University of Edinburgh, based within the Research Engagement and Impact Team as its Policy Engagement with Research Manager.

Tell us about your personal career pathway

Following my PhD, I worked in policy teams in third sector organisations and for a longer stretch of nearly 10 years I worked in The Scottish Parliament as Head of Research & Policy for the Green MSPs. I always had an interest in how research evidence was and could be used to inform public policy. After a maternal career break with 3 children, I applied for a ‘knowledge exchange’ role in the University of Edinburgh. Institutionally, a decision was made to invest in a specialist role to build capacity and capability for policy engagement with research across the University and better connect to the dynamic landscape of policy engagement opportunities externally. Thankfully, I got the job! 😊

How did your institution first come to be a member of UPEN?

The University of Edinburgh was a founder member of UPEN. In my generalist knowledge exchange role at the time, I was asked to attend its early meetings. The University of Edinburgh wanted to be part of a community of like-minded colleagues, and realising the strengths of collaborating and building connections through this UK-wide network. And look at us all now! 😊

What is your institution’s overall approach to academic-policy engagement?

Nurturing and cultivating our foundation for policy engagement with research across the institution; building on our assets and strengths as well as strategic initiatives to focus our limited resource in this work. This role delivers: 1-2-1 advice; online and in-person training as well as dedicated resources on an internal hub on policy engagement; a University-wide Policy Engagement Network; research to policy Fellowships funded by our ESRC Impact Acceleration Account in collaboration with Scottish Government; collaboration with senior leaders in the University of Edinburgh on joint projects e.g. Improving Policy Leadership.

Tell us about a specific policy engagement project or achievement from your institution that you are particularly proud of.

Improving Policy Leadership (IPoL) is an InFrame Culture Catalyst project funded by the Wellcome Trust. This is a cross-college initiative at the University of Edinburgh focused on building more externally engaged and impactful research cultures. In particular, we’ll be exploring the barriers that limit academic engagement in public appointments in the UK, and piloting new ways to build capacity in this space. It’s exciting to work in a team of four with colleagues from different parts of the University – I am a co-lead alongside one of our Associate Dean of Research Impact, a lecturer and a PhD researcher. We hope to share outcomes in due course, and also look forward to connecting with UCL who are undertaking a similar initiative. Get in touch if you are doing a similar project at your university, we’d love to hear about it!

From your institution’s perspective, what is the biggest value of being part of the UPEN network today?

We appreciate being part of a wider community working at the research-policy interface and connecting with colleagues dedicated to improving the academic-policy ecosystem. We hear about opportunities for policy engagement we may not have known about otherwise. We learn from each other across the network. It’s a place to harness our combined strengths. For example, I would not have known about the similar UCL project for IPoL if it had not been for relationships built through UPEN.

Finally, what one piece of advice would you give to other members on how to make the most of their UPEN membership?

Get involved in whatever way you can, no matter how small or big that action may be – there’s lots of different ways to make the most of your membership.