Meet the team: Clare Stainthorp, Policy Engagement Coordinator (UK wide Areas of Research Interest) at UCL

Hi Clare. What’s your role within UPEN and what do you do?

I’m the Policy Engagement Coordinator for the UK-wide Areas of Research Interest (ARI) work strand as part of UPEN Programmes. I’m based at University College London and work closely with the ARI co-leads, Nicky Buckley and Rob Davies. The aim is to deliver a range of UPEN activities to better understand what good practice means within the academic-policy ecosystem. We’re aiming to further embed Areas of Research Interest and other engagement mechanisms in national, devolved, regional, and local contexts. My role includes mapping current activity to identify ‘what works’ across universities and policy organisations, supporting the development of Areas of Research Interest for national and regional policy through pilots and fellowships, and building a peer learning and exchange network.

Tell us what you did before UPEN or what you do alongside your UPEN role?

Over the past nine years, since completing my PhD, I’ve had quite a lot of different jobs within the university sector. In 2024 I became the Research Impact Manager at the Royal College of Art, and I’m continuing in the role part-time alongside working for UPEN three-days-a-week.

Before that I was a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, researching periodicals published by working-class atheists in Victorian Britain. I’ve previously held a range of positions at University College London – from supporting postgraduates in the English Department to developing REF Impact Case Studies for the Faculties of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences – so it’s great to be back working in Bloomsbury!

What’s your favourite thing about your role?

I love the ethos of knowledge sharing and collaboration that sits at the heart of all UPEN’s activities. In my role this means lots of opportunities to meet people, find out about the work they’re doing, and try to understand how different approaches to engagement can be beneficial across a wide range of policy contexts. UPEN’s diverse membership and partners means that no two days are the same, which is what makes my job really interesting.

What has been your career highlight (or highlights) to date?

Most recently, it was great to be a guest on the podcast ‘Confessions of an Early Career Researcher’ (British Academy & Leverhulme Trust). The episode was an opportunity to reflect upon and celebrate the mentors, networks, and friends who have helped me to navigate the post-PhD landscape. I was able to share what I’ve learned about pursuing a ‘squiggly’ career pathway through which I’m continually developing new skills, building new connections, and learning new things.

Looking further back, 2019 was a real year of highlights for me! I was proud to publish a monograph based on my PhD research (Constance Naden: Scientist, Philosopher Poet). Alongside this, as Research Assistant on the UCL-Resolution Foundation project ‘Exploring Inequalities’, I was involved in policy-facing work for the first time, including co-authoring the report Structurally Unsound, which went on to be cited in the House of Lords.

What do you think the biggest challenge in academic-policy engagement is at the moment and what can we do about it?

There can be an often-unexamined tendency to assume that arts and humanities research doesn’t have much to offer the policy sector, especially when compared to scientific disciplines. As someone with a background in the humanities and who supports research impact activities arising from art and design research, I have seen first hand how knowledge and methods from these disciplines can offer vital new perspectives that shape policy discourses and decision making in really positive ways. Initiatives like Policy Lab and History & Policy, and the 2024 report ‘How does Arts and Humanities research influence public policymaking?’, show how connecting people in policy with researchers and practitioners in these fields can be transformational. I think the best way to address this challenge is to make successes visible and facilitate peer learning around what works – UPEN’s Arts and Humanities subcommittee has been doing a great job at championing the valuable role these disciplines play within the university-policy engagement ecosystem.

What’s one small unexpected thing that always brightens your workday?

My working-from-home days are always brightened by our little cat Etta waking up from a nap and coming to purr on my lap – as well as the Dusty Knuckle bakery van stopping at the bottom of my road!

What does your dream holiday look like?

Warm weather, great food, and interesting cultural sites to explore. I’m very excited to be visiting Sri Lanka for the first time later this year, which I fully expect to tick all of those boxes!

Time for Desert Island Discs! If you were cast away on a desert island, what three songs would you currently take with you and why?

It’s hard to pick just one track from ’69 Love Songs’, but having seen The Magnetic Fields touring the album last month I would have to go with ‘The Book of Love’, which is maybe perfect? The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a perennial favourite, and I’ll always be happy to hear the stunning ‘Cheated Hearts’. A recent song that brings a huge smile to my face is CMAT’s ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’ – it’s very funny and an absolute bop.

Give us a plug for something you’re working on at the moment

We’re mapping Areas of Research Interest across the UK, and the people involved, so we can better understand the current landscape. Building on UPEN workshops that took place over the last year, we’re working to get a clearer picture of how Areas of Research Interest have evolved from a tool deployed by UK government to a more complex mechanism that is facilitating academic-policy engagement across combined and local authorities and devolved government and parliaments. Keep an eye out for new resources arising from this work.

How can we get in touch with you?

You can get in touch with me by email, or connect on LinkedIn.

& finally, share with us a snapshot of life outside of work

Taken at Trafalgar Square during this summer’s Jeremy Deller event.