Policy

• Think critically about who you contact. Determine what issues are most relevant to your research; review committee charges and memberships; review officials’ websites and press to help identify their focus issues.
• Write op-eds or policy briefs and discuss your findings in social media and on news media to draw policymaker attention. Having an active and intentioned online presence can be crucial in fostering connections with policymakers
• Participate in working groups and testify in front of congressional committees on policy issues related to your research. This can be effective for advocating for a policy change and reaching multiple policymakers.  
• Other Opportunities to Build Connections: 
  • Attend conferences frequented by policymakers or pursue opportunities to speak at public-sector events. 
  • Contact existing governmental research units as well as policymakers. 
• Maximize the impact of your advocacy. Collaborate with organizations already active in policy advocacy, such as: 
  • Professional societies 
  • Nonprofit organizations 
  • Governmental research organizations 

• Open with a sentence introducing your research and how it connects to a relevant policy issue. Provide a short introduction to who you are, what your research reveals, and why it matters for a relevant policy area. 
• Connect your work and policy recommendations with their values or policy priorities. Make clear why you are contacting specifically, based on either their own interests or what impacts their constituents.  
• Tell them why your research provides something new to inform evidence-based policymaking. Summarize relevant results, focus on simple statistics and what policy recommendation(s) your findings suggest.  

• Avoid academic jargon and use precise language. Provide key numbers and aggregate data; focus on the relevant impacts of your research. Avoid detailed discussion of theory and methods. Avoid using acronyms.  
• Address an “intelligent but not expert” audience. Elected officials may be highly knowledge in some topics based on their professional experience, but not necessarily in your field of study.  
• Make your policy communications timely. Be mindful of legislative timetables and time your outreach prior to committee hearings on relevant policies.  
• Clearly connect to policy impacts. If the policy implications of your research impact constituents, highlight their stories and give elected officials a reason to care. Be cautious to appeal with facts, rather than emotions.  
• Use visuals and infographics. Focus on delivering the facts and keep your written pitch as succinct as possible. Employ graphics to highlight key figures and findings. Use graphics and data visualizations to efficiently communicate complex findings. 

1. Policy elevator pitches are short introductions to your research and its policy implications, often delivered at conferences or in brief meetings with policymakers. [1]  
2. Policy memos are detailed but concise summaries (~750-1,000 words) of the policy implications of your findings for policy. [2] 
3. Policy presentations are oral presentations of policy recommendations, grounded in research and using visuals. These may be delivered at conferences, in longer meetings with policymakers, or at talks.[3]

• Local: Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges of Chicago, Department of Public Health, Office of Budget and Management, Department of Planning and Development 
• State: Department on Aging, Department of Children and Family Services, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Human Rights, Department of Labor 
• Members of the Consortium of Social Science Associations: these social science professional organizations are actively engaged in advocating for social science education and may be useful partners in research outreach related to higher education-adjacent policy  

American Association for the Advancement of Science: provides a comprehensive list of further policy engagement resources, including workshops, engagement opportunities, and resource guides 

Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases: offers general tips on engaging policymakers with research results, as well as in-depth toolkits on various topics 

Consortium of Social Science Associations' Washington Update: provides biweekly updates on federal policy developments relevant to the social sciences, as well as calls for researcher input on research and higher education-related policy issues 

MIT Policy Lab: provides several resources and annotated examples of researcher policy pitches, memos, and presentations, as well as resources for preparing for congressional meetings, writing op-eds, and submitting public comments to pending legislation 

University of Oxford: offers comprehensive resources with general guidance, evidence synthesis best-practices, and guides for writing policy briefs; most applicable to UK political procedures but with relevance to U.S. researchers 

WT Grant Foundation: a concise post focused on researcher misunderstandings about the policy process and evidence-grounded advice 

1. An annotated elevator pitch is available to review at https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/be/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/Elevator-Pitch-AAE.png 

2. Annotated policy memo examples are available to review at https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/be/commkit/policy-memo/. See also a database of publicly available policy memos at https://policymemos.hks.harvard.edu/policy-memo-databases 

3. An annotated policy presentation is available to review at https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/be/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/Policy-Presentation-AAE1-Emanuel.pdf 

The Office of Civic Engagement’s Government Relations team is available to provide further resources and support for faculty interested in engaging policymakers in their research. Contact Benjamin Gibson with the State Government Relations team to kickstart outreach processes, provide feedback and advice on engagement strategies, and connect you with useful contacts or resources.