Gigi Tennant Research Manager, Nesta Kuranda Morgan Evidence Lead, Nesta Gigi Tennant and Kuranda Morgan from CAPE partner Nesta, who lead our training workstream, share their reflections on what they’ve learnt about how to improve training and learning provision for academics who are engaging with policy.  Why are we doing this? We want to understand the enablers and barriers to delivering effective policy engagement training and professional development offers at CAPE partner universities. Through a series of interviews and focus groups, we sought to learn how training and other professional development activities dedicated to policy engagement are currently being designed, … Continued

Roshnee Patel, Deputy Director in the Policy and Strategy Group at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), has recently started a year-long CAPE fellowship at UCL to explore what framework she might develop to address complex social welfare legal need better across vulnerable groups. Below, she explores why she’s taken a year out from the MoJ, the importance of taking time to reflect deeply on how she has approached policy and implementation in a central Government context, and what she’s been up to so far “Learning never stops” – a phrase I wholeheartedly agree with. As a child, I was always … Continued

We are pleased to announce our fellowship with the Department of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has been taken up by fellow Elizbeth Lomas, Associate Professor in Information Governance at University College London. DCMS is currently outlining its plans to refresh its Areas of Research Interest (ARI) document, which will outline the Department’s research needs through a series of questions. Lead by the Department’s Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA), Elizabeth will support this project through external engagement, governance and evaluation of the process. As CAPE fellow, Elizabeth will also ensure that experts, researchers and industry professionals can see and understand DCMS’ … Continued

In our latest episode of CAPEcast, we talk to Ruth Morgan, Professor of Crime and Forensic Science at UCL and World Economic Forum young scientist, about her call to get 1 million scientists doing 100 million hours of policy engagement – that’s two hours a week each for 10% of the world’s scientists. Ruth chats to Sarah Chaytor, CAPE co-lead, about why it’s important to spend time building bridges and networks between science and policy, and how two hours a week can create a momentum for networks to grow and get science into places where it affects decision making. We … Continued

We are pleased to launch our new fellowship with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) on women’s health taken up by fellow Jane McDermott from the University of Manchester. The Vision for Women’s Health Strategy for England was published in December 2021 and set out a clear ambition to improve the health and wellbeing of women and girls for the future. The forthcoming strategy is due to be launched in 2022 and includes a focus on research, evidence and data. Jane McDermott’s CAPE Fellowship will involve supporting this theme to inform insight and understanding of the critical issues that impact … Continued

There are lots of different ways academics and policymakers are working together and trying to help ensure the best available evidence is properly informing policymaking, but are some ways better than others? Join us on the 7 June (10-11.30) where we will hear from a range of policy partners to share experience and insights on different types of knowledge exchange events in academic-policy engagement. We’ll be hearing from Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Islington Council, Defra and CAPE’s evaluation team. The session will open up to discussion to all attendees to explore what works for academic-policy knowledge exchange. A summary blog … Continued

The factories of the Industrial Revolution ran through several regions of the north, making them once prosperous. But, since the closure of the cotton mills, most of these regions have been economically left behind, which has caused a decline in productivity, health, education and more. Coupled with the 2008 economic crisis and the COVID-19 outbreak, these regions have remained in a status of economic disparity. Oldham is one of those left behind towns, with challenging rates of economic decline. Skill levels are one of the most accurately indicative marks of socioeconomic outcomes. In Oldham, 28.3% of the population have a … Continued

The UK has a productivity problem. The productivity record in the UK has been consistently among the worst in the OECD with output per hour worked growing at a snail pace of 0.5% per year on average between 2008 and 2019. And this productivity problem becomes more challenging when you consider the huge variation within the UK, across devolved nations, regions and cities. That slow nationwide 0.5% productivity growth is double the growth seen in the north-east, while growth stalled entirely in the north-west and declined in Yorkshire and the Humber over the past decade. “The promise to level up … Continued

CAPE is pleased to launch a new 12-month policy fellowship with Newham, taken up by Darren Sharpe, honorary Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Finance and Technology and Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Institute for Connected Communities (ICC) based at the University of East London (UEL). Talking about his fellowship, Darren commented – My motivation for applying for the CAPE Fellowship was the ability it afforded me to build meaningful relationships between academy and the public sector to tackle real world policy challenges. Specifically, the project based in the London Borough of Newham will focus on … Continued

Summary | Context | The Policy Challenge | Evidence needs | Delivering the work | Application process | Eligibility | Timeline | About the Policy Challenge Fund | Islington New Deal for Workers Summary CAPE invites applications from staff at UCL and the University of Cambridge as part of the CAPE project to work with Islington Council to develop an evidence base which will underpin the development of a New Deal for Workers in Islington. Funding of between £5k and £15k is available and it is anticipated the research will be carried out between 30 June and 28 October. Respondents … Continued