Policy Linkage is our brand new horizontal collaboration project.
To explain, it is helpful to outline our three approaches to policy work. One is our flagship “top-down” approach where we decide on a set of interesting policy topics with some relevance to current affairs, and build a holistic multidimensional framework around a research report within OxPolicy’s resources. Another is a growing “bottom-up” approach, where we work with individuals who bring us a serious research topic to pool resources, produce very high quality outputs and distribute these. But the third is the relevant one here: cooperation and collaboration with other groups and societies.
We are of course biased in our enthusiasm for policy engagement, but it seems an inescapable fact that policy has bearings on almost every aspect of life. Some of the work that Oxford societies do already touches on policy (although often in a more applied or “issue relevant” sense). We’re very keen to work with other groups to explore how policy affects their target issues, be this international diplomacy to the environment or migration & integration.
We envision a series of joint ventures formed through collectively organized speaker events, seminars and mutual publicity. OxPolicy would likely offer a series of policy forums around the target issue, perhaps producing a short policy brief on the subject, while the societies we work with would focus more on the events side of affairs. There would also be a certain amount of fluidity between the taskforces, for example both groups might have an input on the report and OxPolicy would lend support to event organizers. We’re happy to work on an issue-based term, or along other lines.
Because we want to work on a level footing with other groups, and for both of us to benefit to the maximum from collaboration, each joint project should probably be approached differently. We’d thus suggest either a series of email discussion, or for committee members to meet to discuss the ways this might work.
For now, the simplest way to get started is to email Russell at , or for us to get in touch with you (which is more likely if your areas of interest are aligned with our current projects). Likewise, the same contact address is appropriate for non-commital questions or expressions of interest. You can also use the form on the next tab, which has the same effect.
