These opportunities and resources have been compiled by UK Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit (KEU) to help you understand how to engage with Parliament as a researcher.

Take a look at the KEU’s webhub of information and resources for researchers. 

Jump to:

Select committees currently accepting written evidence (compiled 23 April 2025)

Please click the title of any inquiry listed below to be taken to a summary of that inquiry and the full call for evidence. Remember that you don’t have to answer every question posed in each call for evidence.

New calls for evidence:

All other inquiries currently accepting written evidence:

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) wants to hear from researchers on ‘forever chemicals’

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has launched a new inquiry to address the risks of PFAS forever chemicals within the UK’s regulatory approach.

The Committee will be considering Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), a family of more than 14,000 man-made chemicals with useful properties such as being resistant to heat, water, oil and grease. They will also examine the UK’s regulatory framework for the use and disposal of PFAS, and will be asking whether UK registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals is adequate.

The Committee is particularly keen to hear from researchers in this area. 

The deadline for submissions is Monday 26 May 2025, 17:00. 

Why should I engage? Submitting evidence to a select committee can lead to further engagement, such as an invitation to give oral evidence. Your submission will be published on the Committee webpage. Your insights may inform the Committee’s conclusions or recommendations it makes to the Government. Find out more about why to engage with Parliament. You can also read more on engagement for impact. 
 
Support resources: Find guidance on submitting evidence to select committees on the KEU’s ‘how to guides’ page. Watch our 30 minute online training session “How to work with select committees“. 

Opportunity: Special Adviser for Environmental Audit Committee PFAS inquiry

Can you help Parliament examine how well equipped the UK is to address the health and environmental risks from PFAS chemicals?

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) is inviting applications from individuals interested in being a Specialist Adviser for its inquiry into addressing the risks from perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), to help the committee explore what understanding we have regarding the risks from the substances.

The successful candidate will be working with the committee secretariat, in particular the inquiry manager, on the planning and conduct of scrutiny for the inquiry, contributing to briefing material for the inquiry, and attending relevant committee meetings and providing oral briefings when required. Demands are likely to be irregular and unpredictable and only in exceptional circumstances be asked to do more than two days’ work in a particular week. The work may involve attendance at committee meetings in Westminster and accompanying any future visits it might undertake in connection with the subject. They would be paid a daily honorarium (between £160-£280 per day, depending on experience) on the basis of work done.

To apply, please send a CV (no longer than 3 pages), covering letter (no longer than 2 pages), and a declaration of relevant interests to EACom@parliament.uk.

Deadline is Monday 28 April, 12:00. Shortlisted candidates may be invited to interview (held virtually) during the weeks of 5 and 12 May. 

If you are interested and have any questions about the role, please contact the committee team on 020 7219 8890.

Why should I engage? Being a special adviser provides a great opportunity to work closely with a committee, informing its work and approach to an inquiry – such as inquiry focus, selection of oral witnesses, and report development and conclusions. Find out more about why to engage with Parliament here. And find more on engagement for impact here.  
 
More information: watch a short video with researchers who’ve been specialist advisers, talking about their experience   

Contribute to the POSTnote on nutrient trading markets

POST, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, is calling for research contributions and information relevant to nutrient trading markets.

This POSTnote will summarise the benefits and challenges of the nutrient neutrality and trading concepts, evidence for the effectiveness of nature-based mitigation measures such as constructed wetlands, and implications of proposed regulatory changes under the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Protected sites with Environmental Development Plans in place drafted by Natural England will require developer payments to the Nature Restoration Fund rather than purchasing nutrient credits.

Work will commence in April 2025, with publication expected in June 2025. The deadline to submit a contribution to nutrient trading markets is 29 April 2025, 23:59.

Updated guidance: contributing your research to POSTnotes and briefings

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) have simplified and updated its guidance for researchers to share their expertise and provide contributions to POST’s work, such as POSTnotes and briefings for parliamentarians.

Researchers can feed into POST research projects by following the instructions on the contributing to POST research as an expert webpage. Researchers need only submit:

  • Their name.
  • A link to their online research/expert profile.
  • A personal statement (maximum 250 words) describing:
    • your relevant skills, experience and knowledge,
    • key issues relevant to the project that you would like to make us aware of.
  • Links to papers, publications, or blogs you have written that are relevant to the project topic, where available. Please link to open access sources if you can.

Please familiarise yourself with the new guidance before submitting your contribution to the new POST projects.  

Reminder: your contributions can be emailed to post@parliament.uk until the deadline stated above. 

Why should I engage?
POSTnotes are used by Members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords and UK Parliament staff to navigate complex research. Contributing to a POSTnote is a good way of feeding your expertise into the UK Parliament as part of a trusted, impartial publication.

All contributors are acknowledged when the POSTnote is published. On publication, you and your organisation’s communications team will be notified to publicise the POSTnote and your contribution. Therefore your contribution can help raise your profile and promote your research. 

More information

Call for evidence: House of Lords Committee on Autism Act 2009

To mark World Autism Acceptance Day on 2 April, the House of Lords Committee on Autism Act 2009 has launched a call for evidence to understand how well the Autism Act, the Government’s autism strategy and the statutory guidance are working to support autistic people.

The committee is keen to hear from a wide range of autistic people and others with lived experience to seek evidence on key questions about how to improve support for autistic people. These include:

  • How can public understanding and acceptance of autistic people be improved?
  • How can the Government improve assessment, diagnosis and post-diagnostic support?
  • How can the Government improve the identification and support of autistic people when they need it (including if they do not have a diagnosis)?
  • How can access to healthcare be improved?
  • How can community support be improved?
  • How can access to education be improved?
  • How can support for autistic people to find and stay in work be improved?
  • How can support for autistic people who are in contact with the criminal and youth justice systems be improved?

The call for evidence is available in HTML, PDF, and an easy read and audio format. To give everyone interested the opportunity to respond, this will remain open until Monday 2 June 2025.

Why should I engage? Submitting evidence to a select committee can lead to further engagement, such as an invitation to give oral evidence. Your submission will be published on the Committee webpage. Your insights may inform the Committee’s conclusions or recommendations it makes to the Government. Find out more about why to engage with Parliament. You can also read more on engagement for impact. 
 
Support resources: Find guidance on submitting evidence to select committees on the KEU’s ‘how to guides’ page. Watch our 30 minute online training session “How to work with select committees“. 

Scottish Parliament commissioned research opportunity: Using programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA) to inform pre-Budget scrutiny

Our colleagues in the Scottish Parliament have asked us to circulate this opportunity to our research network:

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body is seeking to award a contract for research to support the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s pre-Budget scrutiny. The purpose of the research is to explore the extent to which PBMA and similar methodologies are actively employed by the Scottish Government, health boards and integration authorities when allocating mental health funding.

The objectives of the research are to:

  1. Establish what baseline data exists for current spending on mental health 
  2. Determine whether PBMA is being used to allocate mental health funding 
  3. Determine whether alternative methodologies are being used to allocate mental health funding
  4. If such methodologies are not being used, establish what approach is being taken and what barriers might exist to adopting PBMA approaches. 

The researcher will also be invited to give oral evidence to the Committee to summarise the findings of their research, and answer Members’ questions.

If you would like to obtain a ‘Quotation Pack’, which includes information on how to submit a quotation, please email academia@parliament.scot, quoting Reference: 2025-26/01/HSCS.

The deadline for quotes is Sunday 18 May 2025, 23:59.

Reminders

  • POST and the British Psychology Society (BPS) are offering a 13-week fellowship to PhD students in a psychology-related subject and who are a Member of the British Psychological Society. The successful applicant will be based in UK Parliament supporting its use of research evidence. The fellowship lasts 13 weeks (full-time) or longer if part-time. It may be undertaken remotely, at POST’s offices in Westminster, or under hybrid working arrangements. The successful applicant will start their fellowship by January 2026 or by April 2026. The opportunity will be funded by the BPS and successful candidates will receive a one-off stipend payment of £7,922.50. Read the application guidance document for more information. Application deadline: Sunday 4 May at 11.59pm.
  • The KEU are looking for an Arts and Humanities Research Fellow. This 12-month Research Fellowship (minimum 3 days a week) is kindly funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It is open to junior researchers or knowledge exchange professionals with research skills who are employed by a university or one of UKRI’s Eligible Independent Research Organisations or Research Institutes. In this role, you will develop and deliver a mixed-methods research project, culminating in the production of a report for policy audiences and an academic journal article for the research community. This will help establish and evidence the use of arts and humanities research in the UK Parliament and more broadly, make a valuable contribution in an area where there is a lack of evidence. We ran a virtual information session on 26 March and will be sharing the session recording in this round-up and on our website in the next couple of weeks. You can find more information about the role, including information on how to apply here. The deadline for applications is 23:55, Tuesday 6 May.

Knitters unite!

Have you ever heard of the parliamentary woolsack?

If not then, depending on who you ask, you’ll probably be given one of two explanations. The first is that it is the name for the big red cushion the Lord Speaker sits on in the Lords Chamber. The second is that it is the name of one of the bars in Westminster. The first inspired the second. 

History has it that the woolsack was introduced into Parliament during the reign of Edward III in the 14th century and stuffed with wool to reflect the economic importance of the wool trade in England. Sadly, it no longer contains 700-year-old wool; it was restuffed in 1938 with a blend of wool from Britain and the other wool producing nations of the Commonwealth.  

So what?  

The woolsack was stuffed with wool because it was important to England in the 14th Century.  

We can take a useful lesson from this: Parliament is interested in what is important to the United Kingdom.  

So, when you’re considering sharing your research with a policy audience, frame it accordingly. Rather than detailing the theory, methods, and knowledge it hopes to advance (what’s important to you and your peers), focus on the value and impact it will / should / could have on society (what’s important to the UK).