The Challenge
Your faculty possess expertise highly relevant to EU policy development but can't dedicate time to Brussels engagement because time is focused on research publications and grant acquisition, not policy impact. Researchers whose scientific work could substantially inform Commission impact assessments, Parliament committee deliberations, or regulatory standard development lack institutional incentives for policy engagement diverting time from publication and grant activities determining career advancement. The contradiction: Universities nominally value policy impact through knowledge exchange rhetoric, yet faculty evaluation structures prioritise traditional academic metrics—publication counts, citation indices, research funding secured. The result: Individual researchers pursuing policy engagement sacrifice career progression for activities their institutions claim to support but reward systems penalize. This incentive misalignment prevents academic expertise from engaging in policy development despite researchers possessing precisely the knowledge evidence-based EU regulation requires.
Why It Happens
Deeply embedded academic career structures where research productivity measures dominate promotion decisions regardless of institutional statements valuing broader impact. The perverse outcome: Early-career researchers with most relevant and current expertise are deterred from policy engagement. They can't afford policy work diverting effort from publication accumulation tenure decisions require.
Our Solution
Policy engagement facilitation minimising researcher time requirements while maximising policy impact, plus institutional advocacy for reward system adaptation: Distilling academic expertise into policy-ready formats researchers can provide efficiently Facilitating Brussels engagement achieving influence without extensive researcher time investment Developing frameworks enabling universities to recognise policy impact We enable researcher policy contributions compatible with academic career incentives by minimising time requirements and advocating for institutional recognition of policy impact
The Outcome
Universities develop recognition mechanisms valuing policy impact alongside traditional academic metrics.
How We Deliver
Research-policy facilitation services enabling efficient expertise contribution and institutional framework development: Translating academic research into policy-ready formats requiring minimal researcher time Facilitating Brussels engagement maximising policy impact relative to time investment Advising universities on recognition frameworks valuing policy contribution in promotion decision