A Cabinet Office review of the research councils’ collective communications has found a lack of cross-council leadership and that the councils do not combine their communications resources as well as they could.
The review found that there was no dedicated cross-council communications group and that each research council approaches public engagement differently, presenting operational challenges. It said that the Research Councils UK Strategy Unit was playing a tactical role, and “not providing direction or clarity on target audience selection for the research councils as a whole” nor taking the lead and driving projects.
A Research Councils Communications Service should be established, based on the Government Communications Service but at a smaller scale. This should develop a detailed cross-council communications strategy and develop governance for collective oversight of communications performance.
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