We welcome all TAS-Hub funded researchers engaging in policy activity, whether Co-investigators, Research Fellows or Assistants funded on the TAS-Hub grant or those funded via Pump-priming. This may take many forms, but in particular, in submitting evidence to inquiries or consultations, we place no constraints on what colleagues may choose to submit based on their TAS funding, but as a UKRI funded activity, we request that you acknowledge the grant funding in any such policy input. (We would also recommend depositing in an institutional repository and issuing of a DOI).
Sometimes it might be felt appropriate to work together on a single “TAS-Hub” response, but in order to do this we must ensure that the submission represents the consensus view across the relevant researchers within the TAS-Hub – this does then mean we need a process.
Hence, please flag opportunities to the Hub Ops team (opsteam@tas.ac.uk) as early as possible, and indicate whether you wish to simply participate or to lead on the response*. The Ops Team will then communicate the opportunity across the Hub and seek to assemble a representative cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary team to develop the response.
*Please also check with the Ops Team to see if someone leads the relevant response. If you are interested in responding, but no one is leading on this response, you might wish to lead on the response.
You can search here for the list of relevant consultations and here for parliamentary inquiries. Sometimes, the Ops Team (or Policy Fellow) will announce calls for evidence that are very applicable to the TAS hub. You would also need to let the OpsTeam know if you are interested in participating or leading on the response.
Checklist to be fulfilled when submitting TAS Hub response (whether a submission is made via email/survey/ or online form – the same rules apply):
- I have emailed opsteam@tas.ac.uk and let them know I am interested in responding and leading the consultation* or participating. I have sought help from opsteam@tas.ac.uk to see if there are other researchers that might be interested in it.
- I have formulated a team consisting of researchers from various institutions and I have sought broad input from across the researchers within the Hub.
- I have engaged with the TAS Hub Director or TAS Hub Deputy Director to notify them that the TAS-hub response is being formulated.
- I have requested a DOI at my home institution for the grey literature.
- I have reviewed the examples of the previous responses to understand the format.
- I have sent the finalised draft to the TAS Hub Director and TAS Hub Deputy Director to be signed off.
- Once the submission was approved by the TAS Hub Director (or Deputy Director), I have made a submission (within deadline) and notified opsteam@tas.ac.uk with the link to the completed file and DOI.
*Person who leads on consultation is responsible for completing these above steps.
Things to remember:
- You do not need to respond to all the questions.
- Responses should be written in clear language, with a summary given (where possible), without over-use of technical language and academic jargon. When formulating your response, always state first the most important things you think the government should do, then provide explanations/justifications, with references where applicable.
- All submissions need to be signed off by the TAS Hub Director or Deputy Director. Please do not leave until the last minute for your submission to be signed off. Parliamentary inquiries tend to have a very tight deadline (one week for submission since a call for evidence is announced), so try to engage with TAS Hub Director before you finalise the response.
- If you want your response to be checked over – email Justyna.Lisinska@kcl.ac.uk.
- Please refer to the examples of previous submissions to get an idea of the format that we use.
Examples of previous submissions:
- – Data: a new direction: a joint response [pdf][doi]
- – The draft for online safety bill: UKRI TAS Hub response [pdf][doi]
- – The future of connected and automated mobility in the UK: UKRI TAS Hub response [doi]
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