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Officials from the Department for Work & Pensions visited the University of Birmingham to discuss their Areas of Research Interest (ARI).

The event, organised by the University's Public Affairs team, brought civil servants and academics together to discuss six research themes identified by DWP:

  1. Employment and progression
  2. Disability and health
  3. Security in later life
  4. Children and families
  5. Service delivery
  6. Cross-cutting research methods

In response to the 2015 Nurse review of the UK Research Councils, the government accepted the review’s recommendation to provide:

  • a more strategic approach to departmental research and development programmes
  • a more sophisticated dialogue with academia
  • documents that set out the most important research questions facing each department

ARI aim to improve how government departments:

  • align scientific and research evidence from academia with policy development and decision-making
  • access a wide range of suppliers
  • engage with researchers
  • access stronger policy evidence bases at better value for money
  • share research commissions

Published ARI for government departments can be found online here.