Academic knowledge in the policy process: strategic currency or political hindrance?

The term ”research utilization” (Weiss, 1979:426) framed the discussion on the relevance of social science research for policy making, together with questions on the factors and mechanisms influence the use of research for... [ view full abstract ]

The term ”research utilization” (Weiss, 1979:426) framed the discussion on the relevance of social science research for policy making, together with questions on the factors and mechanisms influence the use of research for the policy process. More recently, Pollitt (2006: 259-261) addressed new issues referring both to varieties of knowledge provided by the academics to the practitioners and roles performed by academics in relationship to the practice. Availability of high quality research, presented in a brief and comprehensive format, and accessible at the time of decision, are factors often present in the results investigating different facets of research utilization (Borgenschneider and Corbet , 2010). An important recent empirically based contribution to this dilemma indicates that it, it is more useful to view the interaction between the policy and research communities as a range of interactions , varying with the policy area and on the political –administrative dimension (Newman, Cherney and Head 2015).
Current project addresses these issues as part of a larger comparative effort. A survey instrument developed and tested at the University of Manchester was translated, tested, and applied in the Dutch context. Following the Classification of the Functions of Government, roughly 700 positions at the level of Senior Civil Service were identified. Three measurement moments are to be carried out in the Fall of 2015. Our original dataset is the product of the first-ever systematic quantitative enquiry into the use of scientific knowledge by Dutch policy makers. The questions addressed in this first report of the project focused on the Dutch context are “which sources of scientific research and expertise do senior civil servants use” and “which conditions needs the research to fulfill in order to be used by practitioners?”. We expect to find differences in these terms across different policy areas, and seek to test hypotheses on the influence of the factors mentioned in the literature within the Dutch institutional and administrative context.