Category Archives: Uncategorized

What would a more evidence-informed impact agenda look like? Response from an “impact professional”

Posted on

By Anne-Sofie Laegran Having been part of the emerging “impact profession” and followed the agenda closely since 2008, I found Smith et al.’s book an excellent account of the controversies, consequences and challenges that has risen from the impact agenda. I agree with their alternative and broad approach to supporting and incentivising research impact, and   …Continue Reading


What would a more evidence-informed impact agenda look like?

Posted on

By Kat Smith and Justyna Bandola-Gill Earlier this year (against the difficult backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic), Policy Press published our book, The Impact Agenda: Controversies, Consequences and Challenges, co-authored with Nasar Meer, Ellen Stewart and Richard Watermeyer. This book brings together earlier work that we had developed in discussion with SKAPE colleagues. Our   …Continue Reading


Public participation and algorithmic policy tools

Posted on

By Antonio Ballesteros The past couple of months have increased the need for accurate, and transparent, tools that allow policymakers to track and forecast the behaviour of the pandemic we are going through. For instance, different groups of researchers in the UK have used machine learning (ML) algorithms to forecast the type of treatment a   …Continue Reading


Energy transition or energy revolution?

Posted on

By Dr Mark Winskel and Dr Michael Kattirtzi, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies Group, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. Policy revolution There’s been a revolutionary turn in energy policy and research circles. Organisations such as the Energy Systems Catapult, the Energy Institute, and consultancy firms such as PwC have all suggested   …Continue Reading


What does ‘evidence’ mean to MPs and officials in the UK House of Commons?

Posted on

A blog by Marc Geddes, based on a recent open-access article published in Public Administration. Select committees are the principal mechanism of accountability in the House of Commons and act as information-gathering tools for Parliament. They are generally regarded as influential in the UK policy-making process (even if this is often informal), who enjoy widespread   …Continue Reading


Kat Smith, Sudeepa Abeysinghe and Christina Boswell: Reflections on the impact of Covid-19

Posted on

This blogpost is a summary of the SKAPE Seminar on the 24 June 2020 Kat Smith (Strathclyde), Sudeepa Abeysinghe (Social Policy, Edinburgh) and Christina Boswell (PIR, Edinburgh) presented three complementary perspectives on the on the impact of Covid-19 on the study of the relationship between science, knowledge and policy. Christina Boswell noted the extent, and   …Continue Reading


Seven Questions for Studying Science, Knowledge and Policy in a Covid-19 World

Posted on

Marc Geddes, Justyna Bandola-Gill, and Steve Yearley  Covid-19 has spread across the globe, upturning our personal lives and uprooting our routines; and led to significant health problems including, sadly, deaths. Across the globe, people have been forced into lockdown to prevent physical contact with others. Covid-19 has already, or is going to, impact all areas   …Continue Reading


Uncertainty, Pandemics and Policy

Posted on

A blogpost by Sudeepa Abeysinghe, Lecturer in Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh  This blogpost is a repost of a blogpost published in April 2016 on the SKAPE blogpage  The global management of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases present a complex governance issue. The most recent Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC),   …Continue Reading


Governing, knowledge and time: a governmentality perspective

Posted on

A blogpost by Dr. Marlon Barbehön, Heidelberg University This blogpost based on a talk at the SKAPE seminar on 27 August 2019  Time and practices of governing are intertwined in multiple ways. Political rule in general and its democratic form in particular are not possible without the temporalisation of processes and of institutional settings which   …Continue Reading


Democratising expertise? Lay citizens in the role of experts

Posted on

A blogpost by Eva Krick, ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo This blogpost is based on a talk at the SKAPE seminar on 20 March 2019 In the SKAPE seminar, I would like to discuss a first outline of a research proposal that I am developing. It focuses on the involvement of ‘lay’   …Continue Reading