Travis Reynolds
University of Vermont, VT·Social Science
Governments are increasingly urged to base their policies on scientific evidence, but little is known about how scientists' findings actually reach policymakers. Most studies of this question look at health policy in wealthy countries.
- Fields
Social Science
- Topics
evidence-based policymaking
evidence-informed policy
science policy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2026
What they work on
- Compare how the use of scientific outputs varies across federal government components for health, environment, agriculture and social policy in a large low-income country, using surveys of policymakers and analysts.
- Identify the conditions under which scientific evidence is more likely to influence policy decisions, drawing on interviews with policymakers and analysts and on analysis of original policy documents.
- Trace how science is used to influence policy throughout the policy process in a large, economically important low-income setting, combining survey, interview and document data in a mixed-methods design.
More about the research
Those lessons may not apply in low- and middle-income countries, where policy settings differ sharply, and they leave open how science shapes other policy areas such as the environment or agriculture.
Why it matters
Knowing when and how policymakers use science could help scientists, nonprofits, businesses and governments get evidence used more effectively, especially in low- and middle-income countries where little is documented. Poor policy choices and policy failures can follow when science is absent. Comparing health, environment, agriculture and social policy agencies could show which conditions help research shape decisions.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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The school
University of Vermont: 16 labs on PI Pages, $246M a year on research, 76 research doctorates a year.
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