Global mapping of parliamentary mechanisms for accessing academic research

Research evidence has an important role to play in the work of parliaments as they scrutinise, debate and pass legislation. Some parliaments have well-known mechanisms for accessing and harnessing research from the academic community, but there are many others whose work is less well-known.

This Global Map highlights how parliaments across the world access and harness research from academia and show the breadth of activity being carried out.

Each mechanism on the map provides, synthesises or produces academic research for parliamentary purposes. Many provide research to parliamentarians on request, some produce peer-reviewed evidence syntheses and reports, and some provide direct links to the academic community.

All have been actively doing this work within the past 5 years.

Mechanisms were identified as part of a research project undertaken by Dr Vicky Ward and Dr Mark Monaghan at the request of the UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology

If you notice something that is missing or not quite right on the map, please get in touch to let us know (details at the bottom of the page).

Methods

Between September 2021 and January 2022 we identified a total of 173 potential mechanisms using parliamentary engagement and research networks (e.g. the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment Network, International Parliamentary Engagement Network) and by searching the websites of all 192 parliaments listed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
We obtained further information from a sample of mechanisms which gave us a greater understanding of the range of work being undertaken. These insights enabled us to categorise mechanisms into three tiers. These represented our level of confidence (1 = high, 3 = low) that the mechanism included a focus on academic research evidence and went beyond the provision of internally produced and/or unfiltered information and analysis. The map includes all mechanisms categorised as Tier 1.

One of the aims of this work is to build global connections between mechanisms and those who are involved in them. We hope that you will use the map as a resource to identify new connections and learning opportunities. If you do make use of the map in this way, get in touch with Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit at keu@parliament.uk. Likewise, please email us if you have any feedback for the map or our work.