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Stijn van Ewijk: Circular Economy at Defra
PhD graduate Stijn van Ewijk on a Policy Impact Fellowship with Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra)
22 June 2018
The fellowship placement's objective was to improve knowledge exchange between academics and policymakers.
“‘Having practical public policy experience contributes to your credibility and opens doors in terms of the impact and reach of your research.’
What was your Fellowship about?
I completed my Fellowship with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) while I was completing my PhD. The original purpose of my placement was to work on evidence Defra had gathered regarding the benefits of resource efficiency and circular economy. However, when I began the placement, there was an appetite amongst colleagues there for me to explore more basic questions around the meaning of resource efficiency and circular economy. I spent my Fellowship having discussions with colleagues across Defra and wrote my findings into a UCL working paper. It was helpful to have a written output for people to refer to and for me to use as a way to organise my interaction with people and continue conversations.
What did you learn during your Fellowship?
During my fellowship, I gained insights into how the government and its departments work. It was valuable to learn about the difference in incentives between academics and policymakers. For example, academics are generally encouraged to publish as much as possible, whereas in government people are much more careful about what they put their name on, as something might be misinterpreted as being an official stance or policy before this is the fact.
It took longer than expected to publish the working paper, but that enabled me to continue interacting with policymakers even after my fellowship finished. It also made me aware of the movement of staff within the civil service and the need to adapt to work with different teams. Many of the people I initially worked with during my fellowship changed roles in the time period that my working paper was in development.
How did the Fellowship contribute to your career development?
Completing the Fellowship enabled me to gain a direct understanding of how a government department actually works and where academics can feed into the policy process. After my PhD, the Fellowship helped me apply for positions, as I could point to my time with Defra to outline direct policy experience. For my current lectureship position with UCL, I was able to use my cross-disciplinary experience in engineering and public policy to pitch new research directions. I am currently building a research group on industrial ecology and policy.
Would you have any recommendations for PhD students who are considering doing a Fellowship?
The Fellowship can be useful at any career stage, but I see many advantages to doing it during the PhD. As a PhD student, you generally have more flexibility to pause your project than a more senior researcher who might have regular commitments that are harder to step away from (teaching, grant writing). Additionally, the salary cost is relatively low for a PhD student, so finding funding to cover a short (3-4 month) placement is easier. Finally, it can be beneficial to take some time away from your PhD and then go back to it with slightly different eyes.
