Chris Warhurst, Director of the Warwick Institute for Employment Research

I attended a meeting with Sir Mark Walport recently where he said that academics need to work more effectively with government policymakers. The Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER), of which I am Director, does this almost on a daily basis. Working with the Foresight team, we have just produced a number of short reports to help better communicate research to policymakers and academics on the future of skills and skill needs across the life-course, for example.

In this respect, IER is an exemplar of how academics can work effectively with government. For over 30 years it has been making a positive impact on policy. This work started in the 1980s, developing what is now called Working Futures - a regularly updated forecast of skills in the UK labour market. This research also now underpins LMI for All, which makes government-held labour market information accessible to the wider public to enable individuals to make informed career decisions.

But such engagement is the exception, not the norm. More academics need to work productively with government if we are to help create better informed policy and to keep academic research relevant. To do so, academics need ‘critical proximity’: getting closer to government whilst maintaining independent judgement on what is needed and what works. Read more.