Social Science Section at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology

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As the emblem of British democracy and an institution with significant policy influence, Parliament fulfils a number of important and democratic responsibilities through its work to make laws, debate topical issues and scrutinise the work of government. Members of Parliament are required on a daily basis to deal with issues that are widely varied, rapidly evolving and increasingly complex, from rising levels of obesity to cyber security and environmental change. These challenges cannot be adequately addressed by simply using common sense, experience, precedent, or ideological principles; information is vital and comes in a variety of formats, from statistics to consultation responses, and from a range of different sources, including individual experts, groups of stakeholders and the wider public. Scientific research has a key role to play in providing decision makers with the best available evidence to inform their considerations and to hold Government to account effectively; however, high quality research in and of itself is not enough to ensure that decision making - in any context - is informed by it.In recognition of the benefits of scientific research to inform policy, UK Government has in recent years developed comprehensive and formal structures of science advice - broadly defined here as practices involving individuals, organisations and structures that mobilise knowledge from across the social, natural, engineering and medical sciences. Senior government officials and ministers now have access to vast numbers of government researchers and networks of external science advice to support them in their work, with an increased focus on the use of social science research and expertise. By contrast, science advice structures in Parliament are much less mature, and much more needs to be done to enable Parliamentarians to use the insights generated from publicly funded research to inform their considerations.In this context, mobilising multidisciplinary knowledge is essential to meet domestic and global challenges and inform the consideration of pressing social problems. Realising this requires effective knowledge exchange (KE) to ensure that UK social science research meets the needs of, and is used by, Parliamentarians and the staff supporting them. Efforts to enhance awareness and use of social science research within Parliament only gained real traction with the establishment of a Social Science Section (SSS) in the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) three years ago. In partnership with University College London (UCL) and the support of the ESRC, over the last three years the SSS has embedded social science across POST's work and developed a stream of social science work to support Parliamentarians, as well as run a programme of research to understand the ways in which research is used in Parliament. This project will build on the foundational work completed to embed social science research and knowledge at the heart of Parliament thereby enabling more effective governance of our democratic society. Specifically, it will use existing evidence to implement innovative and effective KE approaches in POST and across Parliament, including providing Parliamentarians and the staff supporting them with direct access to cutting edge, interdisciplinary academic knowledge that is effectively synthesised and packaged for timely consumption, together with training to develop the skills base needed to make use of this. It will also facilitate links between the research community and Parliament, to increase academics understanding of the ways that they can engage with Parliament through their research, and enhance knowledge and practice about effective KE and the policy impact of academic research.