EAGER: A Relational Model for Understanding the Use of Research in the Policy Process

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SES-1441446Roberta Spalter-RothKelly JoyceGeorge Mason UniversityThe National Science Foundation supports research on a range of policy-relevant topics. For example, its social science research portfolio includes projects on education and learning, immigrations, demography, terrorism, the environment, disasters, crime and criminal justice, marriage and family, social welfare, employment and occupations, the military, health and behavior, and issues associated with cities and urban areas (e.g., homelessness, poverty, and urban and economic development). These studies have the potential to inform domestic and international policy, public debates and practice and some do, but in indirect and non-transparent ways. The PIs plans to further conceptualize and test a new approach, a conceptual model that better captures how social science research is brought into the policy process and practice. The project is transformative in that it does not assume an "idealized," but simplistic, causal model that takes for granted that policymakers will read research in scholarly journals and adopt their methods and findings to craft new policy. Rather than a linear model that starts with the research and ends with new public policy, the researchers propose a relational model based on relationships, strategies, activities, networks, and processes that result in the use of social science research for policy purposes at a variety of policy locations. To test and refine this relational conceptual model, the PIs will convene an interdisciplinary group of social scientists who will provide case studies of both successful (and not so successful) social science researchers whose work has found its way (or not) into the policy process. The case studies will be used to produce a refined model of successful pathways in which social science research can and does inform public policy.Broader ImpactThe project is potentially transformative because rather than examine an "idealized" casual model of the impact of research on policy, the project uses cases studies of researchers' experiences to inform an interactive model of human relationships, networks, and social processes that result in the use or the failure to use social science research in a variety of policy situations. The widespread dissemination of a findings has the potential to increase the number of social scientists who are more attuned to considering (1) about their research and findings beyond the academic research community; and (2) in more specific terms how social science research findings can inform public policy and practice.