Social Science Section at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology

作为英国民主的象征和具有重大政策影响力的机构，议会通过制定法律、辩论热点问题和审查政府工作，履行了许多重要的民主责任。国会议员每天都被要求处理各种各样、快速演变和日益复杂的问题，从不断上升的肥胖水平到网络安全和环境变化。仅仅使用常识、经验、先例或意识形态原则不能充分应对这些挑战；信息至关重要，其形式多种多样，从统计数据到咨询答复，以及来自各种不同的来源，包括个别专家、利益攸关方团体和广大公众。科学研究在为决策者提供最好的可用证据以告知他们的考虑并有效地追究政府责任方面发挥着关键作用；然而，高质量的研究本身并不足以确保决策--在任何情况下--都是由科学研究提供信息的。认识到科学研究为政策提供信息的好处，英国政府近年来发展了全面和正式的科学建议结构-在这里广义地定义为涉及个人、组织和结构的实践，这些实践调动了来自社会、自然、工程和医学科学的知识。政府高级官员和部长现在可以接触到大量政府研究人员和外部科学咨询网络，以支持他们的工作，并更加重视社会科学研究和专门知识的使用。相比之下，议会中的科学建议结构远不成熟，需要做更多的工作，使议员能够利用公共资助研究产生的见解来指导他们的考虑。在这种情况下，动员多学科知识对于应对国内和全球挑战以及为紧迫的社会问题的考虑提供信息是至关重要的。认识到这一点需要有效的知识交流(KE)，以确保英国社会科学研究满足议员和支持他们的工作人员的需求，并被他们使用。三年前，议会科学和技术办公室(POST)设立了社会科学科(SSS)，加强议会内部对社会科学研究的认识和利用的努力才真正取得进展。在过去三年里，社科院与伦敦大学学院(UCL)合作，在ESRC的支持下，将社会科学纳入波斯特的工作，开展了一系列社会科学工作，以支持议员，并开展了一项研究方案，以了解议会中使用研究的方式。该项目将以已完成的基础性工作为基础，将社会科学研究和知识嵌入议会的核心，从而能够更有效地治理我们的民主社会。具体地说，它将利用现有证据，在议会员额和整个议会中实施创新和有效的知识教育办法，包括向议员和支持他们的工作人员提供直接获取经有效综合和打包以供及时使用的前沿跨学科学术知识的机会，以及为发展利用这一知识所需的技能基础而进行的培训。它还将促进研究界和议会之间的联系，增加学术界对他们通过研究与议会接触的方式的了解，并加强关于有效的KE和学术研究的政策影响的知识和实践。

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.