Research England are responsible for providing funding to higher education providers (HEPs) in England, in order to ‘create and sustain the conditions for a healthy and dynamic research and knowledge exchange system in the higher education sector’ (RE, 2024).
In 2021/22, the Policy Support Fund was introduced to replace the Strategic Priorities Fund. The objectives remained the same, to support universities to engage with policymakers. It is allocated by Research England in proportion to HEPs’ research income from UK central government bodies, local authorities and health and hospital authorities. Funding is deployed flexibly by universities to support research engagement with public policy in a range of ways.
In this report, we explore challenges and benefits of using Policy Support Funding for academic-policy engagement activity, and consider a number of recommendations on improving the deployment of Policy Support Fund, for example:
- Allow longer funding periods for effective and strategic deployment of PSF
- Develop enhanced guidance for institutions on facilitating and measuring long term impact of activities funded by PSF
- Facilitate sharing of best practice across institutions to support effective use of investment as well as innovation
Our new report, including a foreword from Steven Hill, Director of Research at Research England, highlights how 23 Member Universities have used some of their PSF allocations to:
- Grow academic-policy and knowledge brokerage functions
- Strengthen place-based evidence-policy processes
- Widen researcher engagement with policy
This report includes a collection of case studies from member universities and their knowledge brokerage functions with reflections on how PSF has enabled and facilitated both short and long term impact, as well as reflections on shared challenges felt by the sector.
Read the report below.
