Approaching science-for-policy ecosystems from an actor-specific perspective

The concept of “science-for-policy ecosystem” has an instant appeal. Policy problems are complex, and advising governments on all the challenges they face exceeds the mandate and capacity of any single organisation. The concept “ecosystem” hints at the plurality of actors, processes, and practices underpinning evidence-informed policymaking by today’s governments. Thinking from an ecosystem perspective widens both our analytical perspective to understand the role and use of evidence in policymaking, and our capacity building drive to identify levers for change and how they interact.

The downside of the concept is that it may open the aperture too much so that we are overwhelmed by the analytical task ahead of us. And the task is formidable: in a recent survey, 7 out of 10 respondents from the professional science-for-policy community agreed with the statement that “the science for policy / science advice ecosystem is fragmented: in general organisations rarely coordinate their activities and are often not aware of each other’s activities” (Scharfbillig et al 2024). Still, attempts to map ecosystems have been taking off, with numerous country-specific reports having been published in recent years (Portugal, Spain, Greece, Denmark, France, the 7 countries covered in the JRC-OECD project).

While essential to understanding how different system components within one country interact, country-specific analyses are less conducive to identifying common challenges, shared practices, and mutual learning opportunities for specific system components, such as particular types of actors. Looking at one type of actor can also reveal important “translation challenges” between countries, i.e. what’s behind an advisory committee in one country can be very different from that in another one.

Let’s explore research agencies and their role in science-for-policy ecosystems

It is against this background that I proposed to the members of the JRC-initiated “Community of Practice (CoP) on evidence-informed policymaking” to develop a reflection paper on the role of research agencies. Such a reflection paper could help representatives of agencies at EU and national level to reflect on and better understand the breadth of mandates, activities, and challenges of this actor type within Europe’s varied science-for-policy and R&I ecosystems, and foster mutual learning processes and reinforced networks among agency staff with a specific interest in engaging in science for policy.

Research agencies clearly come in many different shapes, with varying mandates and resources, across Europe. And yet, as those entities normally directly interact with often large numbers of researchers, whether as funders, project managers, and organisers of expert evaluation processes, they may have an important role to play in building capacity of the research community to share evidence with policymakers. Moreover, their “implementation” experience is also highly relevant for designing research programmes year after year.

Recent discussions during the CoP meeting in October 2025 suggest that the landscape of research agencies is in flux, often associated with attempts to reinforce the innovation/competitiveness agenda; that agencies assume different science-for-policy roles in relation to blue-sky versus more directional research funding programmes; and that there are different pathways of supporting evidence-informed policymaking for agencies, notably between directly funding science-for-policy activities (e.g. building a science-for-policy community; creating a dissemination & exploitation facility) versus applying science-for-policy considerations and actions onto the funded research (e.g. requirement on beneficiary for writing a policy brief; apply text mining to identify relevant projects and extract evidence).

Join this action now!

The envisaged reflection paper could do three things:

First, see who and what’s out there, with what mandates and profiles?

Second, understand what is being done by agencies in support of evidence-informed policymaking specifically?

Third, identify where we can learn from each other and how?

Here is what you could sign up for:

For part 1, join the action to help draw an initial map of agencies and contact within these agencies those that work on science for policy (Q1/2026).

For part 2, contribute to the action by designing, launching and analysing a simple survey (Q2-Q3/2026)

For part 3, help organise a session within one future CoP meeting which brings together those interested and available, and identify some inspiring practices, shared challenges, and opportunities for capacity building in agencies and its staff (Q4/2026).

Please contact me under Kristian.Krieger@ec.europa.eu