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. 

If you have been forwarded this email and would like to get it yourself, you can subscribe directly to receive our weekly email round-up.

Jump to:

Select committees currently accepting written evidence (compiled 3 December 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:

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 here. And find more on engagement for impact here.  

What should I expect? All evidence will be read and taken into consideration, but you may not receive a direct response from us or the Committee. To stay informed, we encourage you to follow the progress on the respective committee / inquiry webpages.

More information: all inquiries currently accepting evidence are found here  
Guidance on submitting evidence to Commons select committees
Guidance on submitting evidence to Lords select committees

POST haste – get in touch today!

We’re pleased to announce one more new POSTnote that is calling for research contributions.

Pregnancy and postpartum mental health: This POSTnote will consider the issues affecting mental health during pregnancy and in the first year following birth. It will examine the risk factors and the evidence for effective intervention.

All contributions must follow POST’s guidance 

Last chance to respond – closing tomorrow!

Four POSTnotes will close to contributions tomorrow. Do reply ASAP through the form links if you’d like to contribute to these POSTnotes, they’re unable to receive late submissions.

Small-scale solar: This POSTnote will consider what small-scale solar could contribute to delivering energy and climate policy, and how it might be optimised. It will summarise the economic and regulatory framework focusing on the rooftop solar build out and looking at potential benefits and barriers to deployment.

Public engagement with the energy transition:  This POSTnote will look at how the public views and interacts with the energy transition including how techniques can be used to increase engagement with the government’s clean power mission. It will consider how engagement is changing and the potential challenges.  

Nature based flood and drought resilience: This POSTnote will consider the key challenges and benefits of using nature-based solutions to increase resilience to flood and drought events. This will include consideration of landscape restoration and the 2022 roadmap for the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy.

Use of evidence in conservation practice: This POSTnote will consider what is required to develop robust evidence for nature conservation interventions to deliver successful nature recovery strategies in the UK. It will summarise relevant approaches, determine ‘what works’, and their challenges and benefits.

All other POSTnotes accepting contributions

Happily, these three POSTnotes are still welcoming contributions from all researchers. Reply before the deadline stated. To find out more about a specific POSTnote, click one of the links below to read the full details.

Lifelong learning and skills in the UK: What are the overall trends and demographics of participation in lifelong learning and upskilling? What are the challenges and opportunities, including around implementing the lifelong learning entitlement, public understanding, demand, impacts on economic growth and equity of access?

Support for new families and parents: How can new parents and families with infants be supported in the UK? Will proposed reforms better support families, and what are the opportunities and challenges?

Research and development for UK Defence: The UK’s defence innovation system is undergoing significant change. This POSTnote will consider how defence research in the UK is structured and coordinated, what the barriers to innovation are and how they can be addressed.

If you’re new to POSTnotes or haven’t contributed your research before read on for some general information explaining POSTnotes and what you can expect.

POSTnote explainer

Share your research and expertise to contribute to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology’s (POST) new POSTnotes.

POST collaborates with stakeholders and researchers from industry, government, academia and specialist research institutions, the third sector and beyond, to help identify important themes, source critical literature, and peer-review the final reports. POST is calling for researchers with expertise in the below areas to share their research and knowledge to contribute to the new POSTnotes. They welcome hearing from researchers working within all disciplines.

What are POSTnotes?
POSTnotes are comprehensive, trusted, and impartial briefings on new and emerging research areas from across science and the social sciences. They inform parliamentary debate, support decision-making, and help parliamentarians scrutinise government policy. 

Why should I get in involved?
Sharing your expertise to contribute to POST’s work can be a time-efficient way to get your research in front of parliamentarians. To tell us about your work please share your personal details, a brief summary of your expertise and key issues relevant to the briefing topic through the links listed below. 

What happens when I share my research insights?
POST carefully reviews and considers the information you provide. It draws on the research that fits best with the briefing and references this research in the publication. POST sometimes also contacts contributors to obtain further information. It is not possible to discuss individual contributions, not all submissions will be used, nor all researchers contacted. Rest assured POST will reach out to you should they need further information. There is also no need to highly polish the wording when you share your research insights through the form. POST rewords all submissions to fit seamlessly within the published briefing.

All submissions used will be credited in the publication which will be available online with open access on POST’s website: https://post.parliament.uk/. 

For guidance or to find out more about how POST acknowledges contributions browse the webpage: contributing to POST research as an expert. 

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. 

What should I expect?
All submissions will be read and taken into consideration, but you may not receive a direct response. To stay informed about POST’s work we encourage you to subscribe to receive notifications of publications and new research briefings. 

More information 
Find out more about contributing to a POSTnote as an expert.
For queries about POST or POSTnotes contact POST.

Commissioned research: Elected Members Job Share

Our friends in the Scottish Parliament are commissioning comparative research relating to job share for elected members.

In February 2022, the Presiding Officer, Alison Johnstone MSP, launched an audit of how women are represented and participate in the Scottish Parliament. A board set up and led by the Presiding Officer considered the findings of the audit, and responded with recommendations for change: A Parliament for All: Report of the Parliament’s Gender Sensitive Audit (2MB, pdf) 

An Advisory Group chaired by the Presiding Officer, and made up of MSPs from across political parties as well as external members, is monitoring the progress the Parliament is making in implementing the findings of the audit. And wishes to commission external research on job share for elected Members (recommendation 3). 

The purpose of the desk-based research will be to look at practice in other jurisdictions, including recent developments in Wales, to inform the Advisory Group’s future consideration of job share for Members. 

To obtain a ‘Quotation Pack’, which includes information on how to submit a quotation, please email academia@parliament.scot quoting Reference: 2025-26/03/SPGSAG. The deadline for quotes is 23:59 on Sunday 12 December 2024

Why should I engage? 
Undertaking commissioned research for Scottish Parliament can offer the opportunity to work closely with a parliamentary team to support and inform its work whilst utilising your research skills to obtain impact. Making yourself known to staff at any UK legislature may lead to opportunities to contribute your expertise and insights to the respective legislature. 

More information

Prestigious specialist advisory roles: Transition from child to adult health and social care

The Health and Social Care Committee’s Independent Expert Panel is seeking five voluntary specialist advisors for its next project, transitions from child to adult health and social care services.

The Committee is seeking to appoint up to five specialist panel members, with professional or academic expertise in the process of service-user transition from child to adult services, for up to 6 months, beginning in February 2026.

Specialist panel members are recruited at the beginning of each project and work alongside the Chair, Professor Dame Jane Dacre, the Expert Panel secretariat, and the five current core members of the panel.

The Panel will gather evidence on the extent to which current guidelines and quality standards for the transition process between child and adult health and social care services are being met and identify any gaps that exist in this period. The panel undertakes research and analysis, including, but not limited to, reviewing written evidence and published data, to judge the Government’s progress against its own key objectives and commitments, and the sector’s compliance with the relevant guidelines, legislation and guidance.

The committee is looking for candidates who can demonstrate:

  • Significant clinical or professional experience of the transition of health and social care between children and adult services, including a broad understanding of the key issues facing those falling into this group.
  • Ability to provide objective, evidence-based evaluation from appropriately chosen methodologies.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills.

The Panel is actively looking to recruit individuals with a diverse range of hands-on clinical, professional, policy or academic expertise. It is important that the range of views and experiences of patients and service users can be translated through the successful candidates.

Time commitment
The work is likely to be unevenly distributed over time, but specialist panel members would be expected to be able to work for on average 1-2 hours per week, from February – August 2026.

All meetings will take place online (MS Teams). The advisory positions are voluntary and the committee are not able to remunerate specialist panel members for their time.

Apply!
Send a brief CV (maximum 3 pages), a covering letter (maximum 500 words), and a declaration of relevant interests to hsccom@parliament.uk by 5pm on Monday 16 January 2026.

The covering letter, should be addressed to the Chair of the Expert Panel (Professor Jane Dacre) and to the Chair of the Committee (Layla Moran MP), and should set out your relevant expertise and indicate how much time you could realistically devote to panel work.

The declaration of interests should include anything that a reasonable person might consider could influence the advice which might be given to the Committee: for example, active membership of a campaign group or relevant financial arrangement. Declared interests from successful applicants will be published.

For the full role specification, further information or to discuss the role, contact the Head of Secretariat for the Independent Expert Panel, Amna Bokhari by email: hsccom@parliament.uk.

Why should I engage? 
Special Adviser roles are a great opportunity to work closely with a committee, informing its work and approach. Working with the committee’s expert panel is a rare opportunity and will allow the appointed advisers to demonstrate impact by contributing to the small panel and shaping the direction and evidence base underlying this government scrutiny mechanism.  

More information

Reminders

Engaging with UK Parliament: Jane Parry, UK Parliament Thematic Research Lead for Business, Economics and Trade, is leading a project exploring academic engagement with select committee evidence. Jane would love to hear from researchers and knowledge mobilisers about their experience in engaging with the UK and devolved parliaments. Respond by: 31 December 2025.

Can we all agree it’s quite cold?

December has arrived, it’s getting colder, but not as cold as it is way way south in the Antarctic; the coldest, driest and windiest continent. Rather fittingly, Monday was the anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty, which is an international agreement that governs Antarctica and designates it as a scientific preserve for peaceful purposes.  

How much do you know about treaties (perhaps there are a few hanging around in a dusty brain compartment from high-school history?) 

A treaty is a written agreement made between two or more states that is governed by international law. In the UK it is the government that negotiates and signs treaties. Once signed, the document must normally be scrutinised by Parliament before the UK agrees to be bound by it. Only then may the treaty be ratified (by the government formally notifying the other parties that the UK will be bound by it from a specified date). 

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 requires the government to lay most treaties for parliamentary scrutiny for 21 sitting days. If no action is taken by the House of Commons during the 21 day period, the government can proceed to ratify the treaty.  

If, within the 21 day period, either House decides that the treaty should not be ratified, the responsible Minister must issue a statement setting out why they believe the treaty should nevertheless be ratified. If the House of Commons votes against ratification, the statement then “resets” the 21 day scrutiny period. There is no limit to the number of times this procedure can take place. 

So what?

In practice, it is very difficult to influence Parliament’s engagement with treaties, given it has such a short window of influence itself.  However… 

If international agreements have relevance to your research, then take a look at this list of all treaties here – you never know what you might find. Even if they are not relevant to your research, it’s a fascinating window into some of the many international conversations that are going on.  

And whilst the influence opportunities are fairly limited, the Lords International Agreements Committee scrutinises all treaties. Sometimes they open inquiries, which would be your main opportunity to feed your research into parliamentary scrutiny of the treaty. 

Find out more: