Interviewing policymaker elites: improving lessons for researchers at the evidence-policy interface

The evidence-policy-interface is a two-way street: policymakers and researchers both benefit from sharing insights about the problems that governments face and how they seek solutions. Yet, too often, the response is one-way activity: investment in a research-to-policy infrastructure to help academics send evidence to policymakers. This engagement is ineffective unless academics draw on research to understand the policy process in which they engage. Most engaged academics are not policy scientists; they rely on policy sciences for knowledge of policy processes. While there is an impressive body of policy research, and some is based on interviews with policymakers, there is no equivalent-sized infrastructure for policy process researchers. Our knowledge of policymaking is insufficient because most policy scientists are not well supported to conduct elite-interview research. Then, this lack of capacity makes most academics ill-prepared to engage effectively in the evidence-policy interface. While we cannot solve this problem overnight, we can stimulate reflection-driven improvement, including by revisiting guidance to policy scientists conducting elite research. To that end, we review current advice to help formalize this guidance and provoke reflection on the state of interview-informed knowledge. We argue that elite interviewing has become logistically easier but politically harder when elites are disincentivised to share perspectives with outsiders. Overcoming this trust barrier may depend on practices beyond those outlined in standard qualitative research methods and ethics processes. If so, access to policy insights and knowledge might remain limited. We need better ways to facilitate academic-policymaker exchange.