The International Public Policy Observatory 2

The UK has a strong infrastructure of policy-relevant research and what works centres. Our aim is to complement this and to work closely with existing organisations. The primary gaps we have identified through conversation with policy-makers are around broader cross-cutting issues, which are now seen as priorities by governments at every level. So our primary aim is to work across these specialisms and help more strategic action. Our engagement with decision-makers at many levels confirms that there is a need for this, particularly as difficult decisions need to be made about what to prioritise in goals such as levelling up or decarbonisation. A related gap is the lack of focus on some of the overlapping issues - such as how to ensure that decarbonisation raises productivity and growth in poorer regions, or how to ensure that post COVID recovery addresses inequalities that have worsened through the crisis.
Our experience in IPPO1 confirms that close engagement with policy-makers from the start makes it more likely to research will be acted on. It has also confirmed our contention that dialogue is as effective as written outputs for ensuring evidence is used - as a result we intend to continue our focus on events, roundtables, discussions and bigger events. Feedback from policy-makers has also encouraged two other shifts of emphasis. The first is to provide more comprehensive systems maps of key issues that can help policy-makers understand the key points of leverage, while also highlighting where evidence may be missing (which we describe in more detail below). The second is to cover not only proven interventions where evidence is strong, but also innovations that are promising but not yet proven.