Bridging the research/policy gap: policy officials' perspectives on the barriers and facilitators to effective links between academic and policy worlds

Abstract

Evidence-based policy has become rhetoric for many western governments across a broad range of health and social policy areas. However, the transfer and uptake of academic research in policy contexts has often been problematic. Academics frequently argue that policy makers ignore the research they produce, while policy makers argue that academic research is seldom relevant to their needs. Research relationships and collaborations have long been regarded as key strategies to create pathways for research into policy contexts. They are also understood to better support the application of research in understanding policy issues, and in designing and implementing policy initiatives. This paper reports on findings from a large scale project, which targeted public servants undertaking policy work in Australian federal and state departments to investigate their experiences around the availability and use of academic social research. The paper explores the relevance of networks and linkages between academics and public servants in supporting research transfer and uptake. Reported barriers and facilitators to linkages are outlined. The paper concludes that a research-informed understanding of the factors and processes that promote and prevent effective linkages between academics and policy officials is needed to develop more realistic efforts to address the research/policy gap.

Keywords:

• research utilisation
• knowledge transfer
• research relationships
• linkages
• policy officials

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the project team for the Australian Research Council Linkage-funded project “The Utilisation of Social Science Research in Policy Development and Program Review”:

Chief Investigators: Prof Brian Head; Prof Paul Boreham; Dr Adrian Cherney

Project Team: Michele Ferguson; Dr Jenny Povey; Dr Garth Britton; Stefanie Plage

The author would particularly like to thank Dr Jenny Povey for her assistance with the regression model data analysis presented in this paper.

Project website: http://www.issr.uq.edu.au/EBP-home.

Funding

This paper reports on Ph.D. research being undertaken in conjunction with a broader large scale project financially supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage project LP100100380. The broader project also received cash and in-kind support from a number of Australian industry partners.

Notes on contributor

Jenny van der Arend is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Queensland, School of Political Science and International Studies/Institute for Social Science Research; Level 4 GPN3 Building; Campbell Road, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.

Notes

1. The broader ARC Linkage-funded project is entitled ‘The Utilisation of Social Science Research in Policy Development and Program Review’.

2. This paper highlights key design considerations and analysis outcomes of the multiple linear regression only. Further details may be obtained from the author.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: This paper reports on Ph.D. research being undertaken in conjunction with a broader large scale project financially supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage project LP100100380. The broader project also received cash and in-kind support from a number of Australian industry partners.