How can engineers shape public policy?

By Jenny Bird, Head of the Policy Impact Unit, UCL STEaPP

The Faculty of Engineering Science’s Policy Impact Unit has been working with researchers to improve policy engagement and work towards delivering policy impact. Jenny Bird reflects on the team’s first two years and explores how engineers can help to shape public policy.

What does an engineer look like? According to Google’s image search, they are never seen without a hard hat or a high-vis jacket — and spend a lot of time looking at blueprints on building sites. Of course, five minutes spent looking instead at the range of research activity being carried out by UCL’s Faculty of Engineering Sciences (FES) will quickly dispel this misleading stereotype. Currently, UCL’s engineering research includes work on technologies to improve vaccine manufacture, automatically sort waste for recycling, provide next generation 6G wireless mobile connections, deliver energy-efficient cloud computing and protect people from cybercrime (to name but a few examples). And, of course, there is also a wealth or research relating to infrastructure and buildings.

Engineering advice

When it comes to engineering advice, however, it is all too easy for policymakers to fall into the trap of thinking that engineering = roads and buildings. In fact, what makes something ‘engineering’ is simply the desire to turn discoveries into solutions; fundamentally, engineers want to change the world. And it is this quality that makes engineering a natural candidate for policy impact.

Policymakers are grappling with the same challenges that motivate so many members of the engineering community: How can we treat diseases and improve people’s health? How can we prevent dangerous climate change? How can we keep citizens safe from crime and terrorism? It makes sense that dialogue and engagement between the two communities has the potential to deliver real benefits for society.

Improving engagement for policy impact

To help improve FES policy engagement activities and achieve robust policies that meet the needs of 21st Century society, the Policy Impact Unit was launched two years ago at UCL. Our approach is to embed Policy Analysts in research teams across the faculty to make connections, build networks, develop a ‘deep knowledge’ of both the relevant policy system and the research itself. This approach also helps to facilitate effective engagement and knowledge exchange between the two communities.

One of our first projects was a collaboration with STEaPP’s Dr Leonie Tanczer. We aimed to put the issue of ‘tech abuse’ — domestic abuse facilitated through new internet-connected devices such as smart heating, lighting and security systems — on the policy agenda in order to ensure that new legislation is ‘future proofed’ against this emerging threat. This work has involved multiple policy engagement activities over several years, from publishing briefings and drafting consultation submissions to setting up meetings with key stakeholders in the policy community. This work has led to an invitation for Dr Tanczer to attend a roundtable with the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), the opportunity to brief the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and her team and to Parliamentary Questions being asked. Most importantly, the Government has made a commitment that new laws will be future-proofed against this new type of abuse.

Another major project for our team has been a collaboration with Vax-Hub; a research group that seeks to enhance vaccine manufacturing technologies and processes so that Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) can improve the local response to serious diseases. Our collaboration began in 2018, but the policy context was dramatically altered by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, which heightened the importance of effective engagement with policymakers. Key activities have included producing briefings, running webinars, evidence submissions to Parliamentary inquiries, working with the media and building links with the policy community. These activities have led to some important outcomes; Professor Martina Micheletti, the project PI, was invited to provide expert input to a Parliamentary briefing on vaccines, as well as to speak at a UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) world investment forum meeting and take part in the World Health Organization (WHO) World Local Production Forum. A recent ‘lessons learnt’ webinar attracted 200 participants and helped to build links with the WHO, UN and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

Reflecting on our first two years, what is striking is how much of the research that is going on within the faculty has the potential to be of use to policymakers. But effective engagement does require a significant investment in terms of time — impact is almost never achieved from a single intervention, but instead requires multiple engagements over a sustained period. It also requires the skills and specialist knowledge to be able to target and frame evidence in such a way that a policy audience is able and motivated to make use of it. We hope that the PIU is helping to boost capacity on both these fronts.

We are convinced that engineers have a huge amount to offer policymakers — and not just when it comes to building roads and bridges. Engineers are developing solutions to help us all live healthier, safer and more sustainable lives and by engaging with policymakers these solutions can become a reality.

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You can read more about the PIU’s work in their recent report celebrating the unit’s first two years.

If you are a UCL Engineer interested in working with the PIU, visit the website, or contact Jenny Bird on jenny.bird@ucl.ac.uk.

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More about the author

Jenny Bird is Head of the Policy Impact Unit, based in UCL STEaPP. Her major interest lies in improving engagement and knowledge exchange at the interface between research and policy. Prior to joining UCL, Jenny was the Centre Manager for the Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand at the University of Sussex. Before that, she was a Senior Specialist to the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee. She has also worked as a Research Fellow for IPPR and for an international NGO based in Kathmandu, Nepal.