The toolkit — available at policy-engagement-toolkit.eu — provides an innovative hands-on collection of how-to guides and best practices of science-policy dialogue. The main target group are scientists and research managers who want to make academic results and outputs known to a broad audience and actively contribute to evidence-informed policymaking.

By grounding policies in scientific evidence, policymakers are enabled to position their decision making against the background of empirical data and academic knowledge to ultimately better and more effectively address societal challenges. The ENGAGEgreen Policy Engagement Toolkit can facilitate this process because it presents a broad variety of approaches to make scientific knowledge more accessible and understandable for decision makers.

A Comprehensive Resource for Science-Policy Dialogue

With its broad spectrum of engagement approaches, the toolkit seeks to be an inspiration for building bridges between science and policy. It features well-known written engagement formats such as policy briefs or policy blogs, but also a wide range of less familiar dialogue formats. These include, for example, pairing schemes, guided site visits, science shops, or hackathons.

Each of the currently over 60 formats is described and illustrated with practical examples, all of which are based on practical implementation. All contributions are available in English and the national languages of the project partners (Czech, French, German, Italian, and Spanish).

“We want this toolkit to be a practical companion for anyone navigating the complex space between academic research and public policy. The formats we present have been tested and refined in practice. We hope they will inspire and equip institutions across Europe and beyond.”
— Dr Simone Haasler, project leader

The toolkit seeks to make dialogue experiences replicable, inviting universities, research institutions, and other interested actors to use the presented formats and approaches as templates or as a starting point for developing their own science-policy activities. It presents shared practices of the science-policy community and builds on this network.

In addition, the toolkit is equally valuable as a reference resource for researchers, who want to include dialogue and exchange with policy in their research projects. For preparing funding applications where engagement with society and policy is a requirement, the toolkit can be particularly useful as it offers concrete methodological approaches to stakeholder engagement, co-creation, and knowledge transfer. Finally, it can also be used as a training toolbox.

Supporting Green and Digital Transitions

ENGAGEgreen is funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme. The project partners include the Rhine-Main Universities (Goethe University Frankfurt, TU Darmstadt, and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany), Palacký University Olomouc (Czech Republic), University of Granada (Spain), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy), Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France), and the Beta Technological Centre at Vic University (Spain).