Chapter 4 - Skills for Co-creation

Abstract

Although the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) is at the centre of the ‘science–policy interface’, it faces the same problem experienced by academic researchers: there is often a major gap between the supply of, and the demand for, policy-relevant research. This gap relates primarily to key differences in the practices, expectations, incentives and rules of researchers and policymakers. To address it, JRC synthesised interdisciplinary work on the ‘science–policy interface’ to promote a skill and training agenda. It developed this training initially for Commission staff, but many of its insights are relevant to organisations, which try to combine research, policymaking, management, and communication skills to improve the value and use of research in policy.