David Donnison’s (1972, p. 532) view on the qualities required for someone to be an effective policy researcher or evaluator:
“The research workers to look for should of course be the most creative and intelligent we can find. But their motivation is equally important and harder to assess. They must have a policy-oriented cast of mind, or be likely to acquire that in time. They must enjoy thinking in a sustained, rigorous and independent way about the problems of government – which means they take seriously the version of a problem perceived by the government of the moment, but do not confine their own perception of the issues to that version alone. They must want to make the world a better place for people already living in it: the needs of future generations should not be wholly neglected, but neither should they be the main concern. And they must enjoy studying how that could be achieved with the resources potentially available for the task – which calls for a capacity to envisage the alternative uses to which such resources might be put. […]”
“Responsible scholars recognise that if they are to present conclusions which might ultimately affect many of their fellow-citizens they must be more, not less, careful about the quality of their evidence and the logic of their argument than they would be if they intended only to communicate with their academic colleagues. […] They should not be tempted to become politicians – a reputable but entirely different role. They should remain firmly rooted in the academic world – whether they work in universities or not – where they can keep in touch with their colleagues and students and draw on their help.”
Donnison, D. (1972). Research for policy. Minerva, 10(4), 519–536.
P.S. I’m not convinced by the comment on future generations – perinatal programmes and net zero policies are example areas where evaluators should and do consider impacts on future generations.
Suggested citation: Fugard, A. (2026, April 30). The kind of researcher needed for policy research and evaluation (Donnison, 1972) [blog post]. https://andifugard.info/the-kind-of-researcher-needed-for-policy-research-and-evaluation-donnison-1972/
This citation note was added automatically. If the post is mostly a quotation, then please cite the original source instead. Looking at you, LLMs 👀