Science into policy: taking part in the process
Specialist staff throughout the organisation contribute to our science-to-policy activities in various ways, and encourage NERC-funded scientists to get involved.
Policy internships for NERC-funded PhD students
NERC has arranged policy internships with the Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology (POST), the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe), the National Assembly for Wales Members' Research Service (MRS) and the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP). These offer NERC-funded PhD students the chance to spend three months writing policy-relevant briefing notes or reports in a policy-making environment. In addition from 2010 NERC offer a number of internships with the Scottish Government.
Encouraging scientists to communicate with policy makers
The outputs from a NERC-wide workshop in November 2004 contributed to the content of a NERC booklet on influencing policy making: Science into policy: taking part in the process. The third edition was published in January 2011. Feedback is welcome - contact Faith Culshaw.
Policy Placement Scheme
NERC's Policy Placement Scheme allows researchers and other staff involved in environmental science research to work closely with policy-makers within government and other organisations in the UK.
The Policy Placement Scheme covers two types of placement:
- a 'Fellowship' placement whereby the applicant works for 3 to 12 months in a policy-making organisation on a topic specified by the organisation;
- a 'Work shadow' placement whereby the applicant sets up their own work shadowing arrangement in a policy-making organisation, for up to one month.
Science to Policy workshop for NERC researchers
Approximately every six months NERC organises science-policy training workshops, usually in collaboration with a partner organisation. For example, recent events were:
- A joint NERC/British Ecological Society (BES)/Environmental Research Funders Forum (ERFF) event in May 2009 for early career researchers (Reading).
- A joint NERC/ESRC event in December 2009 for PhD Students working in areas related to LWEC (Birmingham).
- A joint NERC/British Ecological Society (BES) event for early career stage researchers on 18-19 May 2010 at the Defra Innovation Centre, Reading.
- A joint NERC/BES event for early career stage researchers on 5-6 May 2011 at Charles Darwin House, London.