Pathways to impact through policy: opportunities and barriers for geoscientists

The Geological Society is the UK’s professional body and learned society for geoscience, supporting a global community of geoscientists. By operating a diverse programme of activities, the Society supports geoscientists to conduct and disseminate their work in a range of ways. This facilitates varied pathways for specialist knowledge to have impact, both within the scientific community and with non-specialist audiences.

The Society maintains a high-impact science programme comprising novel thematic meetings, interdisciplinary conferences, research workshops, and research grant funding. We seek to foster collaboration within and out of the geoscience community by bringing together researchers, practitioners, technicians, citizen scientists, policymakers, funders, and representatives from government and Parliament.

Through the substantial body of expertise held by members of the organisation, the Society works to ensure geoscience is represented in public policymaking through a range of opportunities that geoscientists can engage with. These approaches vary from re-active to proactive, as well as in the degree to which scientists are directly exposed to policymakers. These include opportunities to contribute evidence to support policy such as drafting briefing notes, providing direct evidence to decision makers, participation in communities of interest or practice, and participation at policy relevant meetings to connect with stakeholders.

Whilst these opportunities are accessed by many in the community, there are barriers that limit engagement from scientists of certain groups within the community. This may result from unclear framing of opportunities, lesser representation or engagement of certain groups, or lack of exposure and/or resource to prioritise engagement of this type.

In order to ensure robust and inclusive scientific evidence for policy, it is important to understand how these barriers vary across different types of policy work, and between organisations, with a view to improving transparency and widening participation from the community.