Guide to Requesting Support from TYPE

TYPE offers a range of support and advice to help you engage effectively with policymakers. For example, this could include training to build confidence and skills, guidance on articulating and communicating your evidence, or connecting you with networks and partnerships where your research can have influence. Or all of these!

Engaging in the policy space is rarely a linear process. There are multiple entry points and it can take time to clarify what you want to achieve. We’ll always do our best to support you along the way, and when something falls outside our scope or capacity, we’ll connect you with people or organisations better placed to help. Read more of our FAQs to guide you on what kinds of support we offer.

By ‘policy’, we mean the plans, strategies, and decisions that shape how governments or organisations address societal challenges. 

At TYPE, this includes everything from national government policy to regional and local decision-making, as well as strategies within public bodies, businesses, charities, and industry that influence how resources are used and change happens.

Our role is to help York staff share their research to inform and influence these decisions locally, nationally, and internationally.

We do not cover internal university or organisational policies, such as HR procedures, governance frameworks, or operational guidelines.

We are unable to be  experts in every policy area or academic discipline. Our main role is to provide an institutional mechanism to support policy engagement, to connect your research with the people who make policy and help remove barriers to engagement.

We focus on linking the right people, ideas, and evidence to drive change, taking the great work already happening at York and helping it reach policymakers.

To date, our primary focus has been regional and national engagement, but we are now expanding our scope to include international collaborations, starting with targeted initiatives that align with our strengths and mission. If you would like to talk about research you are doing in the international space feel free to reach out to us and we can advise if we have the expertise and capacity to support you.

Requests related to existing resources are usually quicker to handle, while bespoke or complex requests may take longer, as we assess how we can best add value or signpost you to other sources.

If your request is time-sensitive, please make sure to flag this when you get in touch.

We do, and would usually encourage the first port of call in this instance to be to attend our policy masterclass to shape how you might like to build your policy skills.

Not at all. We work with academic and professional service staff at all career stages.

Some of our training and opportunities are open to postgraduate researchers, and we also offer opportunities for undergraduate students throughout the year.

What policy training do you offer?

We deliver a portfolio of training and opportunities throughout the academic year. Whether you are new to policy engagement or looking to strengthen your impact, these opportunities provide practical guidance from experienced policy advisers.

Our partnership with the UK Government Open Innovation Team (OIT) brings expertise to our training, helping staff (academics and professional services) and postgraduate researchers generate analysis and ideas for policy.

Contact our Capacity and Policy Engagement Manager, Katie Heffron katie.heffron@york.ac.uk if you have any questions about our training portfolio.

Do you offer support for writing policy briefs?

Yes, we provide support to help you developa policy brief. This includes resources thatoffer guidance on the content and structure of your policy brief; templates you can use; ideas on the design and look of your brief, and help to think about how to use and promote your finished brief.

As a first step we would advise reviewing our ‘How to write a policy brief’ page for some initial guidance and to look at some of our published briefs and reports.

Please  contact Duncan.mcknight@york.ac.uk if you have further questions.

If you’re interested in finding out more, TYPE will also host a special How to Write a Policy Brief event on Thursday 12 February 2026, 10am–12pm. Places are still available. Register here.

Do you offer support for writing policy documents such as consultation responses or evidence reviews for parliamentary committees?

Each review or consultation will have its own set of questions and as the researcher with knowledge of the topic area, you will be best placed to answer these. What we do to support is to offer advice on how to construct your written evidence,please see our ‘Giving written evidence to a select committee’ page.

Can you support with bid writing?

We are able to support aspects of bid development where there’s a strong policy engagement element. Because every funding call is different, we suggest you get in touch early so we can advise on what's possible.

We can offer a range of support that might include helping you to shape the policy impact element of your application, or advising on how to share and target your evidence effectively, or providing training to build your team’s policy engagement capacity throughout the lifetime of the grant. 

Depending on the scope and size of the grant, advanced options might include us having a more substantial role where we could be costed into your grant, guaranteeing you support if funded.  

Do you provide any financial support for policy engagement?

We don't commonly provide financial support, our resources are mainly directed through our staff and the initiatives we lead. Any open financial opportunities we do run would be communicated via our newsletter.

Can you help me identify the right policy stakeholders to share my research findings?

Yes, we can help you explore which policy contacts or areas of expertise best align with your research. 

We usually advise staff to begin by reviewing our guidelines on engaging with Parliament, exploring relevant All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), checking Select Committees for open evidence calls and reading our key tips for researchers looking to engage with policy stakeholders. 

It’s also helpful to consider:

• Which are the relevant departments or public bodies for your research?
• What are the relevant government policies and strategies published in your area?
• What are the Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) for the relevant departments and do they align with your research?
• Who is the relevant minister, and have they said anything publicly about issues related to your research?

You may also find theyworkforyou useful. It helps identify relevant MPs and Lords connected to your research area. You can also see who has spoken, asked questions, or led debates on related topics, making it easier to target the right parliamentary stakeholders.

Finally, we offer a limited number of Policy Impact Advice Clinics (IACs), run by policy advisers from the civil service Open Innovation Team (OIT). These sessions provide tailored advice on stakeholders mapping and influencing strategies. To take part, please submit an Expression of Interest here.

Can you help with hosting a policy workshop, event or roundtable discussion?

We can support staff with specific elements of policy-focused events, such as planning, promotion, or connecting with relevant speakers and policy contacts.

Examples of events we have supported include:

• The Working Dad’s Employer Awards in Parliament, part of the Equal Parenting project led by Dr Sarah Forbes. 
• A screening and Q&A of The Unequal Pandemic, hosted by the University of York’s Social Policy Group, produced by Debbie Abrahams MP and Good Guys Productions.
• A session co-hosted with the Northern Health Science Alliance at the 2025 Labour Party Conference on child health and social inequalities.

If you’re planning a policy-focused event, get in touch early so we can advise on what support we can offer.