Engaging for Australia's future
With Professor Rory Medcalf
When it comes to engagement between universities and policy makers, it’s all about your reputation. Are you somebody that is known for unique perspectives, good ideas and innovative solutions?
And it’s about trust. Can you be trusted?
To effectively engage with government and the policy community—according to Professor Rory Medcalf, Head of the National Security College at the Australian National University1—academics need to establish a reputation as somebody “who can engage in a trusted way”. Effective engagement is built upon trust. And a reputation you can trust is “built up over a long, long time.” So, it’s hard work. But the payoff—to have your ideas heard and to positively influence the direction of the nation—is hugely rewarding.
One of the biggest obstacles to effective engagement, according to Medcalf, is an imperfect fit between what academics do and what the policy community wants and will engage with. However, the opposite is also true. The Australian policy community is “not very good at identifying where and how academic research and academic talent can be useful for its needs.” This creates friction, and exacerbates the disconnect between academia and government.
“Generally, with some exceptions, a lot of the academic community is not systematic or proactive or even risk taking enough in the way that it goes about trying to engage with the policy community”
It might come as no surprise, but according to Medcalf, very few people working in government will actually read academic publications. This is for a variety of reasons. Time. The inaccessibility of academic journal articles. Their impenetrable style and language. Relationships between policy makers and academics fail to even get out of the gate. Medcalf’s area of expertise is national security, but this conundrum impacts academics across virtually every discipline2.
This widening gulf between academics and policy makers must be bridged.
Here, the policy community has problems. How to link these things.... Over there, academics have solutions.
What it all boils down to is simple, really. The aim of any engagement between universities and the policy community is to work together towards a prosperous future for Australia. This means solving problems. And it means coming up with innovative initiatives to tackle the most pressing challenges at home and beyond.
But it’s a fight for attention. The media and information landscapes have changed dramatically. Universities have not. According to Dr Ryan Young:
“Previously, information and knowledge were scarce and hard to access… Today we live in a world of information and knowledge abundance… The privileged position of universities as repositories of information providing unique access to knowledge has disappeared. With this, the societal role and value provided by universities is shifting. However, the norms, behaviours and mindsets within universities have not caught up in many places.”
For those seeking expertise, they simply don’t have to engage with academia. So, when it comes to academics’ attempts to engage with policy makers, publishing papers in prestigious journals isn’t enough.
Medcalf encourages academics to pursue every mode of engagement available to them. Grab attention. “Get to the essence” for a time-poor audience. Offer a solution to somebody’s headache. Doing so, according to Medcalf, you earn a reputation as someone with a handle on critical issues. Someone with ideas.
Academics should be systematic, proactive, and risk-taking in their engagement:
Have a strategy. Think about what it is you’re actually trying to achieve—what do you want to get out of engaging with policy makers?—and what you have to offer.
Actually try to engage. Whether its analogue—talking to somebody or going to an industry event or conference—or digital—making videos or posting content on LinkedIn—you have to put yourself out there.
Be bold. From consultants to influencers (and even other academics), all sorts of people are vying for the attention of policy makers. Do something that sets you apart. The point of academic research is the generation of new knowledge, or the application of knowledge in innovative ways. Demonstrate this.
In the face of fierce competition for limited attention, academics should produce creative content such as a video or podcast series; write for the mainstream and popular media; and post about their work on social media. Take research and translate it for different audiences with different mediums. Everything at your disposal3.
A research article is the start. It isn’t the end.
Finishing on a salient point made by Medcalf, the burden should not be borne entirely by academics. It is, often, government and the policy community that has the problems to which academics might have the solutions. So, the policy community should also be more proactive.
Next time you have a problem, take an academic out for coffee.
"Our mission is about engaging minds for a secure Australia. We are entrusted by government with building the human capability to face a new era of complexity and risk.”’
From the business to the law school, public health to education, academics struggle to connect their evidence based solutions with policy makers.
Academics also needed to be supported to do this work. Both materially, whether with funds to collaborate with creative professionals or the training to effectively engage audiences; and culturally, the support and encouragement to actually do it and to do it consistently.
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