New platform to inform policy with latest research

The Australian National University (ANU) has launched a new platform, ANU Policy Brief, to connect policymakers and end users with the University’s world-leading policy research and expertise.

ANU Policy Brief features actionable and accessible ideas and findings from experts from across ANU on the biggest policy challenges and needs Australia faces.

At the launch, which took place at the Parliament House in Canberra, ANU Vice-Chancellor and President, Genevieve Bell, told attendees that the new website would build on the University’s broader national mission and long-history of providing evidence for better outcomes.

Quoting ANU co-founder, HC ‘Nugget’ Coombs, who saw the University as a “powerhouse of social reconstruction” the VC said ANU was “a place where research is directed at the problems arising immediately from the social, economic and cultural context that would bring us the knowledge with which to build wisely”.

“The lovely thing about ANU in 2024 is we know how to balance the timescales of eternity —meaning there will always be people in our universities who are staring over the immediate timeline and looking at what comes next,” Vice- Chancellor Bell said.

“We also know that to be a university of quality and distinction in the 21st century means you have to lean into the demands of politicians and reformers to be the powerhouse of social reconstruction, and a place that generates knowledge with which to build society.

“We’ve created a place to do that; a place to consolidate the things we know and share them in a way that is accessible in a way that is 21st century — future-leaning, deliberately cast for a broader audience.”

The Australian Public Service Commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, officially launched the new site. He said ANU Policy Brief would empower policymakers to understand the narrative behind data that they deal with in their day-to-day work.

“If you’re interested in public policy, what our job really is protecting and improving the lives of the people of Australia and our natural world,” he said.

“Evidence is really important in how we go about doing that.

“What a university like ANU does is to bring together the massive thinking on a topic and be able to put that into some order — to have a narrative, have a story and say what’s going on in the world in various domains — and then draw on the evidence that sits behind that.”

Commissioner de Brouwer highlighted that ANU was a “special cousin” to the work of the Australian Government and the public service and the launch of the new website will allow for more evidence-based policy decisions.

“There’s a wonderful synergy between government and university,” he said.

“ANU Policy Brief is a focal point for government to draw so that it can lean in and do what it can for the lives of people, and also for our natural world.”

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Read the latest insights and subscribe to ANU Policy Brief at: https://policybrief.anu.edu.au