October 21, 2024
Increasing Evidence Use through Research-Policy Partnerships
By Lindsay Barclay, Gray Barrett, Michael Becker, Susanna Campbell, Brad Kent, and Joe Young
On April 17, 2024, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO) and American University (AU) established an innovative research partnership to investigate when and how State Department uses data and evidence to inform foreign policy decisions and implementation. This project emerged in response to The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 and is supported in part by AU’s Translating Research into Action Center, a U.S. National Science Foundation Grant (#2331399) from the Accelerating Research Translation program, and a World Bank Government Analytics Fellowship. The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, known as the Evidence Act, requires the U.S. Government to develop evidence to support policymaking. In this blog, we describe what it took to form the partnership, why it works, and what we think others can learn from it
Setting the stage for real partnership
The State Evidence and Learning (SEAL) Partnership program authorizes State Department bureaus to collaborate with approved external partners through formal agreements that ensure scholars and practitioners have equal stakes in research. The formal agreement between AU and State exemplifies this characteristic. Previously, a university might have implemented a project that State designed, or for which State furnished data. The SEAL MoU established co-productive principles for data sharing, joint decision-making, consultation with stakeholders throughout State, and publication.
Setting up the collaboration took an investment of time
Even with the support of the SEAL partnership team, it took several months to solidify our project. While State’s Learning Agenda provided broad guiding questions, we had to narrow our scope to specify an actionable research hypothesis. We found that our common methodological training enabled us to more easily agree on our research question and design.
Our research question is: When and how does State use data and evidence to inform foreign policy decision-making and practice? This question supports State’s policy imperative to increase evidence use, making it easier for us to act on the research findings. Our findings will also help to support our other aims of advancing State’s Learning Agenda; deepening CSO’s existing data analytics efforts to anticipate, prevent, and respond to conflict; supporting the Secretary of State’s Modernization Agenda; and producing publications on foreign policy decision-making that can be published in top peer-reviewed journals.
The nuts and bolts of partnership practices matter
We created parameters around our collaboration, including on data collection and sharing, communication and decision-making, and co-authorship. Our aim is to ensure that the research is collaborative and independent. In developing these parameters, we followed best practices on research-practice partnerships, which emphasize the importance of a shared understanding of the research problem and the goals of the endeavor. The best practices also highlight the importance of trust, two-way communication, and a shared commitment to usable research. For example, the members of our team who work for State will not be part of interviews or have direct access to any identifiable information, but they will provide feedback on all interview and survey protocols and give the academics on our team guidance on how to approach State staff.
Consultation across State is critical
Because we aim to produce research that captures how State produces and uses evidence, we will continuously engage with a broad range of staff across several bureaus. Through these regular consultations, we are improving the design of the research, ensuring buy-in at the initial stages, soliciting feedback on our preliminary results, and facilitating discussions about the implications of the findings and changes they could help catalyze within the Department. Our goal through this broad consultation is to foster a sense of investment in the evidence we produce within State. The dozens of semi-structured interviews that AU will conduct are likewise an important part of this buy-in process and will shape the survey and future directions of our research.
We plan to maximize the impact of the research by partnering directly with CSO’s Office of Advanced Analytics (CSO/AA), which is focused on research analysis and academic partnerships, including the Academic Centers for Conflict Anticipation and Prevention program. CSO/AA’s dedication to data use will allow us to translate the research into tangible recommendations for State and ultimately support its work promoting stability and reducing fragility.
Impactful research partnerships require a sustained commitment
Because both academics and government practitioners are still trying to understand how to create impactful research collaborations, one of the secondary goals of this partnership is to share our collaboration methods. Our partnership can serve as a model for how policymakers can engage with scholars to improve government functions and processes. We look forward to sharing more about the lessons we learn.
Lindsay Barclay and Michael Becker are Ph.D. students at American University’s School of International Service and School of Public Affairs, respectively.
Susanna Campbell is Provost Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security, School of International Service (SIS) and Director of the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab (RIPIL) at American University.
Gray Barrett is a team lead in the Office of Advanced Analytics in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Conflict & Stabilization Operations (CSO) and was a 2024 World Bank Government Analytics Fellow. Brad Kent is a data scientist in CSO’s Advanced Analytics Office.
Joe Young is the Director of the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky.
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