Co-production in Regional Academic-Policy Engagement: Developing Optimal Conditions

Co-production in academic policy engagement is about bringing people together to collaborate and address complex policy challenges. This method of working is about communicating effectively, sharing power well, valuing each other’s skills and knowledge, and offering value for all, not just the few. There is no single, ‘one-size-fits-all’ model for co-production, and each collaboration should be designed to suit the specific context and people involved.

This guide, produced by CAPE and the Co-Production Collective, is designed to be used as a reference tool for those working in and around regional academic policy engagement to help plan and organise co-produced projects. The guide explains the key principles of co-production and explores some of the necessary ‘conditions’ for effective practices to thrive in the context of regional academic-policy engagement.

About CAPE

Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE) is a knowledge exchange and research project funded by Research England from 2020-2024, which has been exploring how to support effective and sustained engagement between academics and policy professionals. The project is a partnership between UCL and the Universities of Cambridge, Manchester, Northumbria and Nottingham in collaboration with the Government Office for Science, the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology, Nesta and the Transforming Evidence Hub.

About CAPE Resources

CAPE’s resources have been developed collaboratively with their policy partners and using practice-based experience. The toolkits and guides are designed to be flexible so they can be adapted to meet the specific needs of different university and policy systems. All resources are intended as an entry point into addressing common challenges in academic-policy engagement and to inspire new and deeper forms of engagement. The CAPE team encourage practice-based feedback on all CAPE resources, to improve their efficacy and to ensure that future resources cover the needs in academic-policy engagement. Get in touch here.