From Research to Policy with Sherry Glied

Sherry Glied, Dean of the Wagner School of Public Service and former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, discussed the path from research to policy at a January 2022 CHDS seminar.

Glied noted that researchers are often frustrated that policymakers don’t pay attention to their findings, while policymakers complain that researchers rarely give them the answers they need. Both groups are interested in evidence-based policy, but have differing objectives. For example, researchers often focus on innovative work while policymakers require robust results supported by substantial research. There are many ways researchers can increase their impact. One is to focus on agenda setting; on providing evidence that a problem is important and that a policy response is well founded. Research that synthesizes the results of different studies is often very useful. Providing information on who benefits and who is harmed is important, rather than simply reporting averages. Writing issue briefs and opinion pieces that clearly explain your findings and their implications for a nontechnical audience helps bring attention to your work.

This seminar is part of the CHDS online seminar series. To be added to the email list for future seminars, please write to chds@hsph.harvard.edu.

Learn more: Read HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation Publications
Learn more: Explore the Resource Pack: Introduction to Benefit-Cost Analysis
Learn more: Read the Commentary by Glied titled “Policy Analysis in Government and Academia: Two Cultures”