Politics of evidence co-production in Finnish higher education
Decision-makers today need to draw on a variety of evidence sources and consider stakeholders’ views to solve evermore complex societal and political problems. Co-production refers to a multi-voiced policy process that brings together multiple actors and ways of knowing. Yet it can be unclear when and how co-production is honestly a collective endeavour and what…
Supporting policy through research: what role for funders?
Using research to inform policy sounds straightforward, but in practice, it remains one of the biggest challenges in public policy. Despite decades of effort, there is still a persistent gap between what we know from research and what gets used in decision-making. Our recent study explores one under‑examined part of this puzzle: the role of…
How youth reference groups can help amplify research findings in public discussions and improve policymaking
Where youth engagement in policymaking is often tokenistic or absent (Waite et al, 2024), this could be improved by collaborating with young people as research evidence users. In a previous post, we examined what it means for practitioners to use research well (Rickinson et al., 2024). The Quality Use of Research Evidence (QURE) Framework guides how research…
The crematorium of knowledge: reimagining how we change
About fifty years ago, the epidemiologist Archibald Cochrane recounted a conversation with a crematorium worker that feels hauntingly relevant today. When asked what fascinated him most about his profession, the man replied, ‘The way in which so much goes in, and so little comes out’. In the world of evidence-informed policy, we are currently standing…
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