Inaugural Local Policy Fellowship concludes with fresh insights on local projects
Graduate students, academics and local policy partners convened earlier this month for a showcase event to conclude the inaugural Local Policy Fellowship Programme.
At the event's core were presentations from the 19 Local Policy Fellows – the graduate students who have been working on local policy research projects with officers and policymakers from Oxfordshire County Council over the past few months.
With projects rooted in the local community and focused on addressing climate and health inequalities in Oxfordshire, the Local Policy Fellows introduced the findings of their scoping reviews, data assessments and impact evaluations to a captive audience of academics, local policymakers and civil society organisations at the Blavatnik School of Government on 1 July.
Topics tackled by the Fellows ranged from exploring the opportunities to promote health outcomes offered by growing vegetables in NHS hospital sites, to assessing the potential for mapping the quality of greenspace in Oxfordshire and identifying promising practices for schools’ decarbonisation in the county.
As well as working in close partnership with Oxfordshire County Council and its partners, each Fellow was also supported by professional research facilitators and academic mentors from Oxford University.
Alex Betts, Global and Local Engagement Officer at the University of Oxford, said: “The Local Policy Lab Fellowship Programme has shown that challenges like climate and global health that exist all around the world have real local importance too, and starting to tackle them at a local level can truly make a difference in people’s lives.
“It’s been remarkable to listen to the Fellows’ recommendations about carbon credit and offsetting, green space wellbeing labs, public directories for social prescribers and other initiatives that can have impact over time, and the Local Policy Lab is committed to continuing to build while learning from one project cycle to another.”
Professor Alex Betts, Oxford University's Local and Global Engagement Officer
Dr Adam Briggs, Deputy Director of Public Health, Oxfordshire County Council
The Local Policy Fellowship Programme is part of the Local Policy Lab, the new alliance between the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University and Oxfordshire County Council. It is devised as an opportunity for students and researchers to engage with their local community and to better understand the public policy context of the city and local environment where they live.
The Local Policy Lab will continue to build meaningful and long-lasting connections between academic researchers and policymakers at the local level. The Local Policy Lab is expecting to re-launch the next cohort of the Local Policy Lab Fellowship Programme in coordination with Oxford Brookes University in the next academic year.
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