Science for Policy Handbook provides advice on how to bring science to the attention of policymakers. The handbook is dedicated to researchers and research organisations aiming to achieve policy impact.

Today we face major policy challenges, which cannot be solved without scientific evidence. Science and policy are different worlds, but they must collaborate closely in order to address wicked problems of our age.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the European Commission's science and knowledge service, with a mission to bring science and knowledge into EU policymaking. Over the past years, it has embraced new types of knowledge and practices in order to increase the impact of research on European policies. The Science for Policy Handbook presents the lessons learnt along the way, applicable not just in the EU context.

The book puts together advice on new skills and practices for individual researchers, but also discusses elements of institutional change – knowledge areas and processes in which to invest. It puts co-creation at the centre of Science for Policy 2.0, a more integrated model of knowledge-policy relationship.

Key Features

Covers the vital area of science for policymaking
Includes contributions from leading practitioners from the Joint Research Centre/European Commission
Based around key skills for practitioners at the science-policy interface, needed for effective evidence-informed policymaking
Presents processes of knowledge production relevant for a more holistic science-policy relationship, as well as particularly sought after types of knowledge useful in policymaking
Table of Contents

SECTION I: Science for Policy 1.0: Deficit Model
1. Against the Science-Policy Binary Separation: Science for Policy 1.0
2. Post-Normal Science: How Does It Resonate With the World of Today?

SECTION II: Science for Policy 2.0: Co-creation
3. Institutional Framework for the Science–Policy Interaction
4. Skills for Co-creation
5. Achieving Policy Impact
6. From a Policy Problem to a Research Question: Getting It Right Together
7. Working Through Communities
8. Engaging With Citizens
9. The Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities and Challenges to Modernise the Policy Cycle
10. Navigating Interests in a Science for Policy Environment

SECTION III: Backbone tools of Science for Policy 2.0
11. Complexity Science in the Context of Policymaking
12. Foresight - Using Science and Evidence to Anticipate and Shape the Future
13. Design for Policy
14. Monitoring the Impact of Science and Evidence on Policy
15.Communicating Science in a Policy Context to a Broader Audience

SECTION IV: Science for Policy 2.0 in Specific Areas
16. Knowledge-Based Crisis and Emergency Management
17. Behavioural Insights for EU Policymaking
18. The Use of Quantitative Methods in the Policy Cycle
19. Place-Based Solutions to Territorial Challenges: How Policy and Research Can Support Successful Ecosystems