Supporting policy through research funding: how UK funders can use Areas of Research Interest to bridge evidence gaps

ARIs provide a systematic and transparent set of policy research needs which can be used to support cross-government discussions to inform funding processes, both in terms of new research investments and mobilising existing funded research. While funders were committed to knowledge mobilisation, they can lack the skills and capacity required to implement it effectively. That is not to underestimate the volume of time and work required to support this process. While technical developments are likely to help, we argue that this will need to be complemented by a significant amount of relational work to understand and engage with the research needs of government officials and to support the interpretation and use of existing research.