June 2021 - Nicola Buckley: Associate Director at the Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge
The Pembroke College Corporate Partnership Programme is known for supporting our partners in ‘navigating’ Cambridge, and as part of this we work closely in partnership with many of the centres, initiatives and networks that make up our complex ecosystem. The Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) works with academics and decision makers to improve the use of evidence in public policy. CSaP has a range of programmes to achieve this aim and the Policy Fellowship Programme is a key cornerstone in this strategy. Pembroke supports this programme by helping to provide a College base for Fellows when they visit Cambridge, and helps to co-ordinate informal meetings with academics and our partner organisations. In this blog Nicola Buckley, Associate Director of CSaP and lead for the Policy Fellows team, discusses how working with Pembroke has helped the impact of the programme – also demonstrated in the infographic below.
I am responsible for the Policy Fellowship Programme at the Centre for Science and Policy, matching Policy Fellows to the relevant academic networks in Cambridge and beyond in order to address their policy questions. The programme exemplifies CSaPs distinctive approach - and by working with Pembroke College and the Corporate Partnership Programme we can help to demonstrate all that Cambridge can offer.
A Policy Fellowship is a flexible development programme for senior policy professionals from government, industry and the third sector, and each is unique. Since its launch in 2011 the programme has brought more than 450 Fellows to Cambridge, and reached more than 1700 academics and other experts. The Fellowship is now recognised across the University of Cambridge as the go-to network to connect research with the policy world, and across Government as a uniquely powerful opportunity for problem-solving, professional development, network building and access to expertise.
Our Policy Fellows come to Cambridge and spend time meeting relevant researchers from a range of disciplines. Their days can often be intense – using the opportunity to consult, question and learn from academics in a series of one-to-one meetings to help them understand the evidence that relates to a policy challenge that they are facing. After a long day, we are able to offer our Fellows a slightly more relaxing evening in the College hosted by a Pembroke Fellow, sometimes also including a Corporate Partner. Dining in a Cambridge College is a unique experience and, although we work with the Corporate Partnership team to match the interests of our Policy Fellow with their Pembroke host, the intention is that this is an opportunity for wide-ranging engaging conversation, reflection on their day and encouraging a feeling of being part of the unique community that is Cambridge and its Colleges. Many of our Policy Fellows stay to become Continuing Fellows and a regular event (pre-Covid-19) is our annual Continuing Fellows’ dinner and roundtable discussion, also hosted in Pembroke College.
Looking back at the data (and as shown in the infographic), two-thirds of our Policy Fellows have been hosted for dinner in College by a wide range of Pembroke Fellows, allowing the visitors to break bread with academics not related to their policy questions, but who often provide interesting viewpoints or even just entertaining discussion in distinguished surroundings! The Policy Fellows can also meet with senior leaders from Corporate Partners where interests overlap, and this can provide impact for both the Fellows and Corporate Partners.
Back in 2020, the Pembroke Corporate Partnership team arranged for Policy Fellow Daniel Shaw, then head of housing and planning statistics for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, to have dinner with Dr Mark Wormald, Professor Colin Lizieri and Sam Monger from Grosvenor. Daniel said: ‘Attending the hosted high table dinner at Pembroke was a wonderful experience. First and foremost it was an occasion to share an enjoyable meal with good and varied company, being also able to take in some of the history and tradition of the college. There was a real mix of both academics and professionals with expert knowledge in my field of interest, but also those with completely separate fields who were able to discuss and enlighten me on new an completely unexpected topics. Staying in Pembroke and attending the dinner was a real highlight of my CSaP programme’
Of course, Covid-19 has limited our in-person activities and for much of the last year we have been operating a virtual Policy Fellows programme, but we are looking forward to the hopefully not-too-distant future when we can resume working with Pembroke to generate meaningful connections between academia and policy-makers.
Nicola is Associate Director and leads the Policy Fellowships team at CSaP. She is responsible for a programme matching Policy Fellows to relevant academics, developing CSaP's academic networks and interactions with other universities. Previously, Nicola was the Head of Public Engagement in the Office of External Affairs & Communications. Nicola managed the annual Cambridge Science Festival and set up and managed the Festival of Ideas and Open Cambridge programmes. Prior to that, Nicola worked as Fundraising Manager within three charities. She was also a secondee to the Science and Society team in the Department of Business Innovation and Skills.