Applications are invited for fully funded places in a small, research-intensive workshop examining the Role of Analytical Tools within the Policy Formulation Process.

Over the last few decades, policy analysts and researchers have developed many analytical tools to collect, condense, sift and make sense of policy relevant knowledge. The most well known tools include monetary assessment (e.g. Cost-Benefit Analysis), scenarios, participatory tools, multi-criteria analysis, indicators, as well as computer models and risk assessment techniques, and have been designed to inform the policy formulation process. But in spite of more than three decades of social science research showing just how complex is the relationship between evidence and policy-making, and many attempts by officials, politicians and researchers to extol their use, we lack a comprehensive understanding of when, where and why certain tools are used and what effect - if any - they have on policy outputs and outcomes.

The broad aim of this workshop is to address these gaps from different disciplinary perspectives. It will examine: how various tools are selected and combined, and by whom, in different venues; how institutional, cultural and organisational contexts shape tool use; how the influence of tools on policy may be addressed; and how far tool use can be explained using theories and methods of public policy, political science, regulation, public administration, evidence use and evaluation.

This field of research seems is in need of consolidation. Significant academic and practitioner networks have formed around particular tools but these tend to be disconnected from one another. Many have a strong normative core to them and/or focus on developing typologies and 'how to' guides. Similarly, there are extensive literatures around the many policy 'venues' where evidence generally may be fed in to policy processes, such as policy appraisal, parliamentary committees, scientific commissions and foresight type exercises, but they tend not to directly examine the way in which analytical tools are used. Overall, relatively little is known about how the various tools and venues intersect, both in theory and, more importantly, in practice. There is not even a common set of definitions of the main tools: for Hood and Margetts they are 'detector' tools; for Howlett they are "policy formulation" tools; for others they fall under the heading of a much broader category of "decision support tools". There are numerous 'textbook' accounts of how these tools should function, but they tend to skirt over the issues arising when they are used in practice.

The immediate aim of the workshop, which will take place in London in c. March 2013, is to share ideas and produce a significant joint publication (i.e. an edited book or similar); in the medium term it could evolve into an enduring network of researchers who aspire to develop joint funding ideas and many other publication plans.

We invite proposals for original papers to be presented at the workshop, and ultimately considered as part of the joint publication. Please send a 500 word abstract to Alfie Kirk (A.Kirk@uea.ac.uk), carefully explaining how it fits in with the aims and objectives of the workshop. Reasonable expenses will be met. The deadline for applications is 10 December 2012, after which a decision on the workshop invitations will swiftly follow.

Papers which adopt a broadly comparative perspective (e.g. examining the selection and use of different tools in one venue or vice versa; cross sectoral or cross-national studies etc.) are especially welcome, as are those that seek to link theory and novel empirical work.

Organisers: Professor Andy Jordan and Dr. John Turnpenny, Tyndall centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

~ Professor Andrew J. Jordan School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ United Kingdom