Research Community

Professor Ben Walmsley

Dean of University of Leeds & Director of the Centre for Cultural Value

Culture Commons have really affected a step change in the traction that our research is getting with key policy stakeholders at all levels. I can't recommend them highly enough.

In a world filled with opinion and conjecture, it can be difficult getting high quality research under the noses of the policy makers who can really affect change.

We work with early career researchers right through to experienced academic leaders, research organisations, higher education institutions, think tanks and policy units to transform research findings into concrete policy recommendations and share them with decision makers at the local, regional and national levels. We partner on major UKRI and Research England and independent research programmes, working alongside academics over longer periods to identify opportunities for policy impact and ensure they are seized in real time.

Our in-house team has extensive experience working with, and within, local and national government as advisors and policy makers. We can support you to convene policy briefing sessions, roundtables and specialist events with policy makers to shape the agendas of the UK and EU Parliaments, All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), Select Committees, UK Government Ministers, Secretaries of State and their equivalents in the devolved administrations, as well as other key policy stakeholders such as Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and Arms Length Bodies (ALBs). We can also help you get your research cited in influential policy and parliamentary publications.

Our team is located in London, Manchester and Sheffield, helping us to keep our clients and partners abreast of the salient topics for UK decision makers in Westminster, Whitehall and across the country. Our in-house software allows us to keep track of the ever-changing policy landscape and provide our clients and partners with REF-relevant data in real time too.

As a consultancy with lots of in-house experience, we can support you with any of your policy and advocacy related ambitions. Here's just a snapshot of some of things we've been working on with the research community in recent years:

Strategic support to to P/Co-Is
Informing overall research design
Developing evidence-led policy
Designing policy impact plans
Convening meetings/events with policy makers
Producing policy seminars and public events
Political, policy and legislative horizon scanning
Advising university policy units
Co-authoring research papers & book chapters

Delivering policy workshops and training
Recording REF-relevant policy impacts
Delivering policy workshops and training
Project management
Co-designing evidence-led policy
Building evidence-led in/external campaigns
Strategic advice to Deans and Vice Chancellors
Running focus groups and polling
Building policy reference groups

We've identified just three case studies to give you an idea of some of the work we like to do:

'Pandemic and Beyond' (University of Exeter) A large scale AHRC funded project bringing 77 teams of arts and humanities researchers together from across the UK to help decision makers with the Covid-19 pandemic.

'Culture in Crisis' (Centre for Cultural Value, University of Leeds) The world's largest investigation into the impacts of Covid-19 on the UK's cultural sector.

Connecting Through Culture As We Age (University of Bristol) A study programme led by leading researchers and technologists to investigate how and why people take part in arts and culture as they get older.