Learn, Test, Apply: The Training Living Lab

We are pleased to announce a new training programme from the Agile Policy Centre at the LUNZ Hub, open to the whole LUNZ Hub consortium, including researchers, policy colleagues and the LUNZ Hub research projects. Its aim is to strengthen collaboration at the science-policy interface, because research and policy work best together when each understands the other. For policy colleagues, that means interpreting research findings with confidence and knowing how far to rely on them. For researchers, it means being able to unpick the limitations of their data and models. And when evidence comes from outside our own discipline, we all need a shared language to interpret it.

What you will learn

The programme has three interlinked modules.

Module 1. Data and modelling for policy: understanding approaches, uncertainty and limitations. Models show what might happen under different policy choices, and how confident we can be. Learn what a model can and cannot tell you, how to choose the right one, where uncertainty in data and models comes from, and how to read the co-benefits and trade-offs of policy choices.

Module 2. Nature markets and green finance: risk, uncertainty and trade-offs. The same uncertainty and trade-offs follow a decision into how it is funded. Learn the main kinds of finance, who gains and who carries the risk, and how to judge whether a scheme will deliver what it is paid for.

Module 3. Evidence synthesis. Models and finance schemes each answer part of a policy question. Synthesis brings their findings together with evidence from other sources, disciplines and practice, weighs how far each can be trusted, and sets out what is known, what is a gap and turns the findings into a clear story of what they mean for policy and practice. Learn which approach suits the question and how to present the findings to a policy deadline, an inquiry or a Minister.

Who it is for

The programme is open to everyone, including policy teams in the UK Government and the devolved administrations, researchers including early career researchers, and the stakeholders who work with them, as well as colleagues across the LUNZ Hub consortium and research projects. We start with the fundamentals and build up to more complex concepts and applications. You do not need any background in modelling or synthesis, and if you already work with models you will still find plenty to take away.

Trainers

The training is delivered collaboratively, drawing on complementary expertise and perspectives. Mike Rivington (James Hutton Institute), Chris Lee (lead of the LUNZ Hub Land Use Change Topic Advisory Group), Alison Smith (LUNZ Hub Work Package 3) and Ania Zalewska (LUNZ Hub Green Finance Topic Advisory Group) will show how different modelling approaches can inform land-use policy and decision-making, including their assumptions, strengths, limitations and uncertainties, using practical examples from real policy questions.

In a nutshell

Two 90-minute webinars in November (dates to be confirmed) introduce the core skills and prepare participants for the in-person exercises.

Day 1, Thursday 3 December, puts Modules 1 and 2 into practice using real policy questions and outputs from the Hub, with Mike Rivington, Chris Lee, Alison Smith and Ania Zalewska. Dinner in the evening.

Day 2, Friday 4 December, puts Module 3 into practice, then brings everything together in a closing Policy Living Lab led by Nick Millard and Ioanna Akoumianaki. Policy and research colleagues join as equal partners to test and improve how they collaborate, from framing questions to explaining evidence and uncertainty and putting advice together.