The academic conference is an underexploited space for stimulating policy impact

Despite often having an explicit policy focus, many academic conferences fail to produce policy briefs or even promote papers that are accessible to those working in policy. Sarah Foxen highlights the rich potential of academic conferences as fantastic sites at which to stimulate and facilitate policy impact, collecting all the academic and policy experts on a topic together in the same place at the same time and offering opportunities for skills development. Some simple suggestions, such as having policy-focused panels and sessions and producing summaries of the policy-relevant points emerging from them, can quickly help academic conferences become more policy-impact-friendly.