Communicating the research evidence: Q&A with Sarah Bunn on a career in science policy

Sarah Bunn is Head of the Science, Digital and Technology Hub at UK Parliament. “This is a fairly new structure set up to support policy, research and analysis work across teams of colleagues working in select committees, Commons Library and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology,” she says. In this Q&A, Sarah shares the route she took into science policy, her work communicating complex research evidence to policymakers, and her advice to anyone seeking a career as a science communicator.

Sarah Bunn

How did you get into parliamentary engagement? 

I did a PhD that cut across neuroscience and biophysics. I was pretty sure that I wanted to stay in a science job, but I didn’t want to stay in the lab. So, I applied for my first policy-related job. It was a maternity cover role in the Chief Scientific Adviser’s office at the Department for Work and Pensions. I worked on occupational health epidemiology and disability benefits, which gave me the certainty that this kind of work was right for me. Afterwards, I hopped around a bit, working on a few short-term policy work contracts, before moving to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). I gained experience of covering a vast range of topics and working with learned societies and academics. I then started my current role, which had the appealing challenge of creating a new internal community and focus on science and tech from scratch. To be part of providing Parliament with the information and people it needs to stay on top of science, digital and tech, which seems to be moving faster than ever, is a challenge and a privilege.

Can you tell us more about the Commons Science, Digital and Technology Hub and the services it provides?

As the Hub is quite new, the focus is principally on supporting colleagues who in turn support the members they work with. I split my time between activities that support the delivery of services to parliamentarians, and on more focused career development and support for colleagues working across policy areas, whether they work on science and tech all the time, or as their work requires. 

I provide this through a range of curated learning and development activities. This includes offering specialist support on different topics through to curating a programme of seminars, private round tables and visits. This year, I also commissioned a bespoke programme of science communication training for colleagues, to bring the very best evidence-based practice into parliamentary work. I am also exploring work to improve our horizon scanning across emerging tech, and developing our relationships with external scientific communities, including the Physiological Society!  

How do you ensure the most up-to-date science is made available and intelligible to members of Parliament? 

Parliament’s policy and research staff are experts in their specialist fields, and draw on a rich range of resources and training both internally and externally. They also use opportunities like those provided by the Hub to keep up to date with the latest advances across science and to make connections with experts. We also have POST which provides a great service to bring research evidence into parliamentary scrutiny, and their Knowledge Exchange Unit has a specific focus on connecting Parliament to academia. They have just launched a campaign to recruit a third cohort of Thematic Research Leads, who are embedded expert academics, and who bring invaluable expertise and connections to our work. There is also POST’s wider programme of PhD Fellowships, which brings in a cohort of bright and enthusiastic students, placed across teams.

Can you share a time when you had to fill a health information gap for an element of parliamentary business?

In my previous work at POST, I was aware that we didn’t have any briefing on the health impacts of heat, so we did a great paper on that, as we knew this issue would keep coming up. I got in touch with the Physiological Society, and we had a very helpful round table where we discussed the Developing a Human-centred Heat Resilience Strategy project. Through this interaction we were connected to academics and other experts, who very kindly reviewed our briefing. This form of support from learned societies is incredibly valuable to time-pressured parliamentary researchers who need to make sense of research evidence reviews, and to get access to experts who can answer their questions. The value of proactive work like this is that it is on hand to support work later, the briefing was used most recently by the Environmental Audit Committee for its extreme weather evidence session in June. 

How can Society members support your work to ensure politicians can ‘follow the evidence’? 

The main things to consider are disseminating research work in ways that will reach non-academic audiences and taking some time to understand how research is used in Parliament. Many institutions have staff in policy engagement or knowledge broker roles that can support your Members with these activities and there are also Parliament’s Research impact resources. 

Society members may also consider exploring how they, or the early career researchers they work with, may benefit from a Fellowship or other placement in a policy organisation. There are so many opportunities across Government, Parliament and beyond now, which can be a helpful step to immerse yourself in a policy setting. For those who spend time in Parliament, they see first-hand how academic evidence feeds into policy, and in some cases, this experience also shapes how they approach their own research.  

What would be the best piece of advice you could give to someone looking to follow in your footsteps in the communication of science to decision makers? 

Science communication is a skill, and in a policy context, it requires delivering often complex and nuanced research, in a way that is accessible, relevant and compelling. Having some great training to hone these skills is a good idea, because this will be useful in all sorts of other contexts, not just talking to politicians!  

More generally, if science policy is a potential career choice or move you are interested in taking, then search for opportunities to get some experience in an organisation, through a placement, or learn more by expanding your networks and having those useful chats with people. These can lead to all sorts of unexpected and interesting prospects!