Arts & Humanities Policy Engagement Resources

Dr Sabine Clarke’s work began with a collaborative report for the British Academy. This led to further commissions and contact with impact leads to keep up the momentum. She was referred to TYPE who set up a policy impact clinic with the Open Innovation Team (OIT) to discuss her next steps. TYPE later provided funding support for Sabine to arrange an event bringing historians and civil servants together to explore how historically informed evidence can influence British farming policy. Her case reflects how TYPE support can be ongoing, offered at different stages to support one person’s policy impact journey. 

What is your research focus?

My area of study is in Britain’s past industrial policy, specifically around attempts to modernise British industries. I also examine agricultural development and how Britain used tech and science to attempt to develop its colonies.

As a historian of government, my research reflects on how policy and science was used to change British farming. As such, I can reflect on how this ties in with current government policy on the agricultural industry.

How has your research engaged with policy?

One area of my research examines how science in the past worked to modernise industry. I was invited by the British Academy, along with other historians, and in collaboration with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to write a report on ‘Lessons from the History of UK Science Policy’ to help current civil servants learn from past industrial strategies. The report was widely disseminated across government and has led to subsequent reports commissioned by the British Academy to help inform the government's local and regional industrial strategy.

When I reflect on my experiences, I would suggest that historians should be more involved in opportunities to engage with government and the civil service. The business of policy making is inevitably historically informed and civil servants are always working within the understanding/context of this history.

Anyone will tell you that many of the assumptions made about the past by the civil service are often not correct and can be unhelpful. Talking to a historian can open up new approaches that policy makers may not have considered. 

How have you responded to challenges in engaging your research with policymakers?

A common issue for Arts & Humanities researchers is that we often don’t conceive of our projects with current politics in mind. Even where we might, the motivation has to be there to consider this, as it will generally require extra study and engagement with a current policy issue that’s linked to our research in some way.

Another challenge is that often A&H researchers won’t have strong relationships with people involved in the current policy landscape. 

To remedy this, I’m using funding from TYPE to hold a one-day event with historians and civil servants from DEFRA. The aim of the event is to discuss and look for concrete examples from the history of British farming that can apply to the current day. For example, historians across the UK are exploring animal health in British agriculture, before the UK joined the European Union. Today’s situation shares similarities with the past, making this a useful time to look back and learn how systems worked to inform current challenges. 

The UK is currently faced with making farming more sustainable in the face of climate change. One issue we will focus on is how to persuade or incentivise farmers to change practices, which we will do by exploring pitfalls from the past and examining how new technologies were adopted via historical case studies.

Liaising with DEFRA colleagues will also, of course, help us to build relationships and links with the civil service and policy makers so this event will be mutually beneficial.

What support has TYPE provided you?

Working with TYPE has been a great way to find out about opportunities and build some useful connections. TYPE and their colleagues in OIT make you think about how you talk about your work to wider audiences more generally. 

I found it helpful to stand back from my own work and give it a fresh look to get a new perspective. This was really helpful in terms of thinking about implications beyond academia.

Dr Louise Hampson’s journey demonstrates the power of sustained, strategic relationship-building. Her efforts helped shift the priorities of major funders like the National Lottery Heritage Fund and nurtured high-level engagement with local civil communities, the Church of England and Historic England. It’s a reminder that change happens through trust and time.

Dr Louise Hampson, Deputy Director for The Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture (CSCC), Department of History 

What is your research focus?

My work is a mixture of grant-funded research and engaging churches and cathedrals on projects to develop guidance and policy. Currently, I work closely with the York Jewish community and wider local groups, collaborating with the Council, civic trust and property developers to better capture how their heritage is understood and promoted. 

Using a historical lens, our work has encouraged these groups to think more carefully about how they engage with minority communities.

How has your research engaged with policy?

My work with the York Jewish community and local stakeholders has direct policy considerations. This includes addressing the complexities of managing different community sensitivities in heritage projects and ensuring that the voices of these communities are heard and considered in policy decisions. The research has informed the creation of guidance documents, such as the one developed for the Church of England (CofE) on visitor engagement. We also successfully advocated for funders like the National Lottery Heritage Fund to change their policy and allow paid consultants to support churches and cathedral in writing their bids. 

We have been able to develop relationships with local stakeholders resulting in senior policy level engagement with the CofE and Historic England. We can now have a real influence in how they develop policy and guidance and in some cases, we have even written policy with them.

What support has TYPE provided you?

TYPE provided funding to the CSCC to deliver online resources and training for the Church of England. This involved consultation work to develop a possible model for a “one-stop shop” online platform to access informational support and training. We were able to advise CofE during a restructure that influenced their digital engagement strategy and also secured funding from Historic England to develop an online tool for creating church documentation. While the one-stop shop wasn't created, the funding supported a deeper understanding of our partners, their priorities and the sector's needs in relation to other initiatives in the sector. 

Working with TYPE was very instructive on how we think about producing, curating and maintaining guidance in a way that makes it robust, well-evidence and easy to find and use.

The grant from TYPE allowed us the space and time to do higher level work and think about how we could change the conversation, move on from moaning about the current reality, and engage with the problem.  We were able to think about how to structure the conversations we were having and identify the sorts of people we should be speaking with. This has helped us have more impact in our sector. 

What advice would you give to other A&H staff?

People in Arts & Humanities assume that only people in their niche will be interested and others outside of it, particularly senior people, won’t be. We think we’ve shown that this isn’t the case.

I would absolutely advise my colleagues and peers to go for it and try to engage with policy and policy makers. Trust what you have to offer is important – culture, arts and humanities matter!

Small changes to policy can have big implications and you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Having TYPE's help has been brilliant. Having someone there who is interested in the policy implications of your work and encouraging you to try something different has been really refreshing.  

And finally, Dr Jon Swords brings another dimension: agility. His move to XR Stories was deliberate, driven by a desire to reshape industry practice. His policy engagement focuses on using research to inform skills development and improve working conditions in real time. He shows that policy impact isn’t just about influence, it’s about intervention.

Dr Jon Swords, Reader in Creative Industries Research, School of Arts and Creative Technologies

What is your research focus?

My research focuses on the creative industries, with a focus on working practices. I explore the challenges people face around exclusion and exploitation within these sectors.

My PhD was in the heritage sector, funded by an ESRC studentship and sponsored by the Learning and Skills Authority in the Northeast. Therefore, there was always a local and regional policy interest applied in the work that I did. The research centre I was based in was very policy oriented, and the policy infrastructure was very rich at the time making it easy to engage.

How has your research engaged with policy?

I moved to York to join XR Stories (XRS), which had the aim to make changes in the screen industry, which means there was always potential to work with policymakers and provide evidence for policy change. 

XRS was one of nine partnerships funded by AHRC with the aim of fostering R&D in the creative industries by working with companies via the university at a regional and local level.

I was also involved in the Screen Industries Growth Network (SIGN) where we worked with key industry stakeholders to influence policy and drive change in working practices and skills within the screen industries.

What support has TYPE provided you?

In both of these projects, we received funding and support from TYPE, including assistance with the writing, design and production of a series of policy briefs with recommendations to policy makers involved in the industry.

We’ve also been able to host a number of events to take our York research and get it in front of a policy audience. Events included a panel discussion with Dr Anna Bull and various television organisations. This was hosted in London on the topic of sexual harassment in the TV sector. This was a great catalyst to highlight the work being done in the university and Anna has built good links with the sector.

We also held events in York with creative workers to highlight the need for spaces in their practice. The BBC were involved and we produced an exhibition to highlight our research findings. We also produced a report to provide evidence to support stakeholders’ policy engagement.

What would be your advice to colleagues?

Engaging with policy can seem like a lot of work for little reward, especially for those who are time and resource poor. In terms of practical support, our policy briefings would have been more limited without the advice and input from TYPE, particularly in terms of their structure and content. 

TYPE provides good communication and support and having them as a resource is helpful for giving you that push to get something over the line which might otherwise remain on your ‘to do’ list. TYPE is a useful catalyst in this way.

My advice on engaging with policy is: don’t be afraid to just do it! It’s not high stakes, policy makers will either read your work or not. But if they do, it can be a crucial first step to making policy impact.