How to turn your EU project results into policy

The European Commission has published a new guide for researchers on writing policy briefs to communicate their findings to policymakers. The bottom line: keep it brief, do not bury important information, and use plain language.

While the advice may seem straightforward, communicating with policymakers is a major challenge for most scientists. 

The two groups speak different languages. In a recent Nature survey of 400 science policy specialists, 80% said they believed policymakers lacked sufficient understanding of science, and 73% said that researchers did not understand how policy worked.