Policy & practice
From local communities to global decision-making, the University of Oxford plays an active role in shaping policy and practice where evidence matters most. The University works closely with policymakers, practitioners, and institutions to translate research into real-world impact, informing debate, improving services, and strengthening outcomes for people and places. By connecting scholarship with practice, and convening diverse voices around shared challenges, we can ensure that policy is informed, inclusive, and equipped to deliver lasting impact.
Effective policy begins with evidence and grows stronger through partnership.
Across all the divisions, Oxford researchers are working alongside policymakers, practitioners, and industry partners to address global challenges. To ensure that the research is accessible and responsive, we are creating spaces for dialogue, co-creation, and innovation. Through practitioner networks, workshops, and public forums, the University is facilitating critical conversations in health, climate, education, justice, and economic reform.
Below you can explore examples of departments, networks, and initiatives that are turning knowledge into meaningful public impact.
The Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) brings together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners across the University to strengthen how evidence informs decision-making. Working across disciplines, OPEN supports researchers to engage with policy audiences through training, collaborative programmes, and partnership-building, creating practical pathways for research to shape public policy at local, national, and global levels.
Across the University, departments and centres are contributing to policy and practice in diverse and complementary ways. The Blavatnik School of Government works closely with public leaders to address complex governance challenges, while departments such as Politics and International Relations and Social Policy and Intervention contribute research that informs public policy, social reform, and service delivery. This is complemented by work in areas such as economic policy through the Department of Economics and Saïd Business School, global development through the Department of International Development, and climate and environmental policy through the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. The Oxford Internet Institute further contributes to shaping digital and technology policy in an increasingly interconnected world.
Alongside national and global engagement, the University also works in partnership with organisations across Oxfordshire to inform local policy and practice. Initiatives such as the Local Policy Lab bring together researchers, students, local authorities and community partners to co-create evidence-based insights that respond to local priorities.
Communities shaping research and local practice
Science Together brings researchers from the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University together with community organisations across Oxfordshire to co-design research that responds to locally identified priorities. Rather than conducting research for communities, the programme supports researchers and community partners to work with one another, combining lived experience with academic expertise to generate evidence that can inform local practice, policy and future collaboration.
Since launching in 2021, Science Together has connected more than 50 researchers, 30 facilitators and 22 community organisations, creating partnerships that continue well beyond individual projects. Recent collaborations have explored issues including youth voice, climate resilience, public health and inclusion, demonstrating how community-led research can strengthen decision-making while delivering practical benefits for local people.
External engagement
Partnerships, research, collaboration and resources form a connected portfolio, linking activity from local communities to global contexts and creating impact beyond the University.
