Building Linkages between Social Science Research and Policy

At the heart of the MOST programme lays the conviction that if we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals we need to relate more successfully political decisions to scientific knowledge. MOST however, recognizes the tension that exists between social scientific research and the world of policy making. Thus, if our purpose is to ‘smoothen out’ these points of friction what is required is nothing less than a concentrated, practice oriented, intellectual effort. It is the profound conviction of MOST that this undertaking is both intellectually necessary and socially worthwhile.

In light of this overarching social commitment, and following the recommendations made by the IGC in February 2003, MOST’s specific aim is to foster and consolidate the building of efficient bridges between social scientific research and public policies. Thus, MOST seeks to do two things:

1. to theoretically grasp and elucidate the complex social links that exist between the world of research and that of policy making and
2. to position itself methodologically with a view to operationally enhancing the take up of social scientific research by decision makers.

The intellectual basis of the Programme, hence, has a double nature. It aims to take stock of real practices and corresponding measures, programmes and patterns of synergy but also to ponder on the philosophical underpinnings of those actual synergies. Via this critical venture, MOST will be able to make a distinctive impact towards the insertion of research into policy.

Moreover, the programme has an explicit applicational commitment. We aim to build up a sufficient critical mass of theoretical and practical knowledge that would help both orient and sustain the communication flows between researchers, decision makers and members of civil society. Accordingly, MOST also intends to act as a major advocacy point pressing for the closer interconnection between research and decision making at both the national and the international levels. Finally, the stock of knowledge accumulated by the Programme aims to enhance the capacities of its member states towards the constitution of research-policy institutions and networks that relate to their proper politico-scientific priorities and objectives.

With regard to the production of policy briefs, we are interested in what they have to say about and/or how they conceive the nexus between social scientific research and policy. Equally, we are looking for measures that they might propose for improving the links between the two domains. Or for the scientifically informed recommendations they make with a view to making policies more concentrated in a particular field, after they have highlighted existing policy aporias or deficiencies.