Contribution short abstract:

This paper considers the often invisible negotiations carried out behind the scenes to introduce policy proposals in Parliament. I draw on lived experience bridging academic research in parliament.

Contribution long abstract:

Policy in practice involves consistently negotiating conflicts and interests within and between academia, and the policy making world. Some policy issues are 'hot topics' often gate kept by particular academics and/or the political personalities, which can often mute genuine academic research from making a difference at the community level. Taking the example of the most recent report published in November 2022 "Index of Islamophobia", I will discuss how the index was proposed to a member of the House of Lords in 2018, but scrapped. Four years later, and after much internal deliberation I decided to publish the index as an independent piece of work, as the index has the ability to make a difference to both the law, and the lives of tens of thousands of people who are not only at risk of hate crimes, but are subject to hate crimes on a daily basis. The research I conduct and publish falls under the umbrella of the Equality Act Review, an organisation I founded in 2018. Since our founding we have remained entirely unfunded and voluntary. I have found the organisation to be locked out of funding calls both within academia (universities, funding bodies such as ESRC UKRI) due to the narrow definition to the the term 'impact', as well as the rigid structures of funding calls and applications. The success of a policy project ultimately lies in negotiating across the tectonic plates of institutional structures of the academic and policy worlds.