1-min summary
- This post introduces the Policymakers Lab, which aims to facilitate evidence generation on topics related to evidence use, policymaker priorities, and effective research communications.
- The lab invites public servants (broadly construed) from around the world who are interested in lending their expertise to contribute to and inform academic research.
- Policymakers in the lab are invited to complete short online surveys developed by researchers.
- Summaries of research findings and toolkits will be developed for policymakers for every project that runs through the lab.
- The lab was developed by @Mattie Toma (myself!), a behavioral and experimental economist; the lab is open to all researchers.
If you are a current or former policymaker and are interested in signing up, please follow this link to complete a short onboarding survey!
You are also welcome to share this with others who might be interested.
Policymakers Lab
Overview
How can we effectively communicate research evidence to policymakers? What types of academic research are policymakers most interested in? What tools can help with difficult policy decisions and the use of evidence in policymaking?
These are the types of questions the University of Warwick’s Policymakers Lab seeks to address. The Lab brings together public servants and politicians from around the world who lend their expertise to contribute to and inform academic research. They receive invitations to complete short online surveys to build evidence on effective policymaking.
What types of research will go through the lab?
Elizabeth Bell and I conducted an experiment in which policymakers in the U.S. federal government provided estimates of the value of different policy programs with randomized features relevant to program impact. We identified two “decision aids” that increase policymakers’ responsiveness to impact by over 60%. These aids are easy to include in researcher and evaluator communications with policymakers and have already been used in policy briefs in practice.
With the Policymakers Lab, we want to facilitate more research like this – surveys developed by researchers around the world that can generate directly-applicable insights relevant to policy decision-making.
Is the lab designed for policymakers?
The lab is designed to ultimately serve policymakers. As such, policymakers participating in the Lab will receive early access to research results, toolkits, and summaries of key insights from the Lab.
We want to be sensitive to the time constraints faced by policymakers. In ongoing research with Mahvish Shaukat and Andreas Stegmann, we find that policymakers reported that a lack of time is the primary barrier to engaging with research. As a result, surveys run through the Lab will be designed to be as short as possible (typically 5-10 minutes or less) and participating policymakers will not typically be emailed more than once a month.
We also take data privacy seriously: your data will be stored confidentially and every project receives ethics approval from the participating university.
Finally, in appreciation for contributing your insights and experience to academic research, participating policymakers can choose to opt into receiving gift cards in return for completing surveys.
Joining the lab
Would you like to join the Policymakers Lab? If so, signing up is easy – follow this link to complete a short onboarding survey. We’ll then reach out when you’re eligible for a study!
We're also actively focused on identifying interested policymakers, so if you know of individual policymakers or networks please feel free to either share this information with them or drop me a note.
