Policy dialogues

Bringing policymakers, practitioners, and researchers together to find solutions

A policy dialogue is a collaborative forum that provides an opportunity to connect in a purposeful way with researchers who have in-depth knowledge of the evidence base relating to your policy or program question.

The Sax Institute’s Evidence Connect team can work with you to scope, organise and facilitate a policy dialogue on a topic of interest to your organisation.

What is a policy dialogue?

A policy dialogue provides space for you to investigate issues in various situations, such as how the findings of a recent Evidence Check or Evidence Snapshot may be applied to your specific policy or practice context. Drawing on the combined expertise of stakeholders working in policy, practice and research, this participatory discussion will consider the evidence in light of other factors important in your context, such as the availability of resources, existing practices, fiscal constraints, and timeframes.

These collaborative dialogues may be used to surface insights and solutions from both policy and practice in a way that captures the complexity of the issues under discussion, provides an opportunity for innovation, and an exploration of gaps identified in evidence or knowledge.

The Evidence Connect team are also uniquely positioned to adapt the policy dialogue format to facilitate wider discussions on any challenging health or social problem or issue. We are experienced in bringing together policy decision makers, researchers, clinicians and consumers to interrogate burning policy questions from multiple perspectives.