Policy Engagement by Design: How to Integrate Science-Policy Interactions into Funding Proposals

Key features in a nutshell

• Before writing policy engagement into a proposal, check thoroughly whether it’s genuinely the right fit; half-hearted engagement helps no one
• Learn the funder’s exact terminology and expectations: ‘engagement’, ‘impact’, and ‘stakeholder engagement’ aren’t interchangeable across funders; understand what the funders expect and what you can realistically deliver
• Design policy engagement as something that benefits your research too and plan it for early in the project, not as an afterthought
• Budget realistically, and define meaningful, proper indicators to track whether your engagement is actually working

What is the issue?

Most policy engagement doesn’t fail because researchers don’t care; it fails because there’s never enough time or money left for it. Planning it into the research project cycle from day one, instead of attaching it later, is what makes the difference. Also, more and more funders are requiring applicants to demonstrate that their research projects will reach stakeholders outside academia or achieve real-life impact. The following tips can help researchers integrate policy engagement in funding proposals.

• Assess whether policy engagement aligns with your personal goals: If you have funding alternatives that don’t require policy engagement and you’re not intrinsically motivated to engage with policymakers, it may be worth applying elsewhere. But if policy engagement is a genuine requirement – and you have no realistic alternative – take it as seriously, as you would take financial reporting: not because it’s exciting but because it has to be done properly.

If you do have alternatives and are genuinely unsure whether policy engagement is for you, try this quick self-test. Rate the following two scenarios from 1 to 10, where 10 means “absolute disaster” and 1 means “not ideal, but I can live with that”:

Scenario 1: Not a single academic publication comes out of your research project.

Scenario 2: Every policymaker who reads your publications or attends your policy events tells you that it was a waste of their time.

If you rate Scenario 1 close to 10 and Scenario 2 close to 1, policy engagement probably isn’t the right fit for you right now. Half-hearted engagement tends to produce half-hearted knowledge exchange products, ones your project team won’t enjoy making and policymakers won’t use.

• Read the funder’s guidelines carefully: Different funders use different terminology: policy engagement, science for policy, stakeholder engagement, impact, valorisation, science communication, knowledge transfer, or something else entirely. Check the guidelines for how the funder defines the relevant terms. If you’re unsure, call the grant officer. Use the funder’s own terminology in your proposal: if the call says, ‘stakeholder engagement’, use that phrase, since reviewers may not be familiar with terms like ‘policy engagement’ or ‘science for policy’.

Also check whether policy engagement is a hard requirement or genuinely optional. In highly competitive funding lines, even ‘optional’ features can be de facto requirements. Confirm that policymakers are actually the right target group for your project; businesses, schools, trade unions, or other groups might sometimes be a better fit. Look at previously funded projects and talk to your research support office or colleagues who have received funding from the same donor about their experience. Check which costs the grant will actually cover and what the funder expects you to achieve: Are they satisfied with a few policy briefs on your website, or do they expect documented policy change attributable to your project?

• Demonstrate how policy engagement enriches your research: Researchers often treat knowledge exchange as monodirectional, without considering what they stand to gain: new perspectives, ideas for research questions or hypotheses, access to interview partners or institutions that can help disseminate surveys, or early input that sharpens the research itself. That’s also why it doesn’t work to plan all your policy publications or events for the end of the project. By then, there’s no time left to act on any feedback you receive. Plan your first policy engagement activities for the first half of the project instead. Include policymakers on advisory boards, and talk to them from the outset, ideally even before you submit your proposal. They may flag issues you hadn’t considered.

• Design specific, creative, and realistic engagement formats: Don’t rebrand standard academic outputs as policy engagement. ‘We will invite policymakers to our academic conferences’, ‘Policymakers will read our academic publications’, or ‘Some of our PhD students will go on to careers in government’ are not credible strategies. Your findings still need to be translated into policymakers’ needs. Be creative: there’s far more to choose from than policy briefs and panel discussions. But whenever you’re planning something more involved – an interactive website, a dashboard, an app, a simulation exercise, a serious game, a podcast, a workbook, an expert hotline, a placement scheme – present the idea to policymakers before you apply for funding. Some ideas sound great on paper but simply aren’t practicable for policymakers. Ask about their needs and match them against your resources and interests; otherwise, you risk spending months developing an app or simulation exercise that no policymaker ends up using. If a policymaker is enthusiastic about your planned format, consider asking them for a short letter of support to strengthen your proposal.

Beyond policymakers themselves, talk to colleagues experienced in policy engagement, or to knowledge mobilisers, about realistic outputs. Decide what outputs, outcomes, and impact you’re aiming for, and stress-test whether they’re realistic. Claims like ‘We will run a two-day workshop at our university attended by 40 MPs from across the country, who will then amend existing legislation as a direct result’ are very unlikely to happen – avoid them. The policy-engagement-toolkit.eu site or the REF Impact Case Study Database are good places for acquiring an overview of what different formats can plausibly achieve.

Finally, think about partnerships – not just with policymakers but with other research institutions, think tanks, NGOs, or foundations – to amplify your engagement and share resources. Rather than organising your own policy events in the capital or launching your own policy brief series from scratch, consider joining forces with organisations that already exist.

• Request a realistic budget: High-quality policy engagement requires adequate financial resources. Consult your institution’s communications, transfer, or research support staff when drafting your budget. Where possible, budget for professional services: moderators, workshop facilitators, graphic designers, website or app developers, scientific writers, event managers, knowledge brokers, or policy engagement trainers. These services can be expensive, but expecting early-career researchers to handle specialised tasks without prior training often leads to delays and suboptimal results. Be prepared to justify the costs: renting an event space in walking distance of the parliament buildings in the capital is more expensive than hosting a policy conference at a university 200 kilometres away, but it may be the only way to reliably reach busy policymakers.

• Define clear and realistic monitoring, evaluation and learning metrics: Reviewers want to see how success will be tracked. Therefore, focus on meaningful qualitative and quantitative indicators like feedback by policymakers or follow-up activities. Show how feedback from policymakers will be continuously evaluated and used to refine project outputs.

Tasks and resources

Researchers

Assess team capacity, the motivation for policy engagement, and knowledge about policymaking early in the proposal phase; integrate policymakers into advisory boards; draft and co-design tailored engagement formats.

Research managers and knowledge mobilisers

Inform applicants about the requirements of various funders. Provide how-to guides (like this one) to applicants. Inform them about policy engagement formats. Track policy engagement across funding applications at your institution. Where possible, offer assistance in connecting applicants with policymakers.

Policymakers

Provide early feedback on research priorities prior to proposal submission; provide a letter of support if needed; participate in project advisory boards or dialogue sessions; offer insights on current policy workflows and information needs; test and utilise tailored policy outputs.

Sources and further reading

ENGAGEgreen Policy Engagement Toolkit (2026), Accessed on 10 August 2026.

REF 2021. Research Excellence Framework (2022), Impact Case Study Database, Accessed on August 10, 2026.

Do you want to know more about the policy engagement toolkit?

Do you want to share your experience in policy engagement? Do you think about contributing to the policy engagement toolkit? Feel free to contact Tome Sandevski via science-policy@pvw.uni-frankfurt.de