Strategic science with policy impact.

www.thelancet.com Vol 385 June 20, 2015 2445 Evidence-based policy making is an important aspirational goal, but only a small proportion of research has the policy impact it might have. Most researchers are not trained to create policy impact from their work, engagement with policy makers is not encouraged or rewarded in most settings, and the communication of scientifi c fi ndings occurs within the academic community but rarely outside it. There are exceptions, but little is done to systematically link scholarship to policy. When the broad gap between evidence and policy is addressed in academic settings, the proposed solution is generally to disseminate research fi ndings to the media and perhaps policy makers. This approach is helpful, but overlooks the importance of information fl ow from the policy world into research settings. The creation of a two-way policy bridge between researchers and policy makers can help to ensure that research addresses issues relevant to policy and that research fi ndings are communicated in real time to policy makers who often must make decisions quickly. We propose a model to create tighter interaction between research and policy domains. We defi ne strategic science as research designed to address gaps in knowledge important to policy decisions, derived from the reciprocal fl ow of information between researchers and policy makers, and communicated not only in scholarly publications but also in forms relevant to policy makers. Strategic science can complement traditional programmatic science to better realise the potential impact of scholarship on policy. We have developed a model of strategic science (fi gure), which we have applied to our work on nutrition policy, obesity prevention, and food systems research, but have designed the model to be broadly applicable for other fi elds of research. The fi rst step in our model is to identify agents for change and create reciprocal information fl ow between researchers and these actors. Investigators can be aware of questions that are relevant to policy, but it can also be helpful to identify and seek input from individuals or institutions in a position to make policy advances. Such input can uncover important gaps in knowledge that have not been identifi ed in Strategic science with policy impact HW has received honoraria for consulting or speaking from Abbott, Abvie, Biolex, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Gilead, ITS, JJ/Janssen-Cilag, Medgenics, Merck/Schering-Plough, Novartis, Roche, Roche Diagnostics, Siemens, Transgene, and ViiV; and research grants from Abbott, BMS, Gilead, Merck, Novartis, Roche, Roche Diagnostics, and Siemens.