Knowledge-to-Policy

Policy making is rarely as simple as assembling and acting on the best evidence. Potential barriers to effective uptake of knowledge can arise during knowledge production or dissemination or during policy making itself, as evidence from various sources and constituencies comes into competition—or where evidence conflicts with more pressing political incentives. As such, there is a substantial gap between potential and actual results, and evidence that could improve lives often sits, unused, on the back burner.

A growing community of scholars and policy experts is exploring the determinants of effective knowledge-to-policy translation, including as related to health—indeed, COVID-19 will no doubt give rise to copious case studies in this area. Research in this space encompasses not only how to more effectively create and take advantage of policy windows, but how to package evidence for greatest effect, how to secure and make use of diverse forms of knowledge—including from stakeholders rarely included in decision-making processes—how to build capacity among policy makers for sourcing and using scientific evidence, and other issues.

Selected Readings

Knowledge-to-policy sits within a thicket of related concepts (among others: evidence-to-action, evidence-based policy, knowledge-to-action, knowledge transfer, knowledge translation, science advice, science diplomacy, the science-policy interface); Michal Sedlačko and Katarína Staroňová usefully review debates and trace key discourses in current research into the role of scientific knowledge or expertise in the policy process. Knowledge4Policy is an example of an innovative platform to support evidence-based policymaking across Europe, created specifically for policymakers by 20 different scientific teams. Improving uptake of evidence in decision-making has also been a focus of mine: as a co-investigator with the SALURBAL (“urban health in Latin America”) project in 2018, I led the implementation of a Knowledge-to-Policy Forum which convened policy actors from over 20 organizations with project researchers to provide recommendations for improving research translation and policy engagement across project activities and across the region.

Selected Readings