LIST OF PANELS

The use of evidence to inform policy has been a continued field of interest in public policy studies. Recent global challenges such as COVID-19 or climate change mitigation have only further emphaised the importance of marshalling expertise, reseach, and scientific evidence to inform decision making.

Yet the majority of work on the use of evidence for policy has focussed on individual studies, or considered factors affecting knoweldge translation and research uptake. Much less considered are holistic analyses of the systems by which governments utilise science and evidence to inform policy - drawing on policy theories and considering key public policy concerns.

This panel considers governmental evidence advisory systems in order to reflect on how instituional arrangements shaping the provision of evidence for policy shape the governance of evidence (and subsequently of policy decision making) as a whole.

Key questions include:

- How are national evidence advisory or science advice systems institutionalised, and what are the policy implications of their structure and functions?

- How might we evaluate or judge the strengths of different evidence advisory systems? And can they be compared beyond mere description?

- How do the institutional arrangements of evidence and science advice shape how evidece use is governed - in terms of which evidence, for what purposes, and with what political implications?

- How may evidence-advisory systems with the system affect governance, representation, and accountability more broadly in democratic states?

We invite papers analysing evidence to policy systems and processess which aim to go beyond simply describing individual resaerch use or uptake events. These can be both conceptual and empirical papers.

We would particularly welcome studies that apply institutionalist theory or models to consider governmental evidence advisory systems.

We would also welcome studies that consider governance elements more explicitly - be it the governance of evidence and science itself, or the implicaitons for broader governance that arises from the utilisation of evidence and science within governmental systems.