The Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Policy Initiative

The unique insights of Arts and Humanities scholars into the nature of lived experience, the momentum of public culture, the templates of history or the determining effects of language, discourse and representation are essential to the evolution of informed and responsible policy decisions. The Trinity Long Room Hub is committed to bringing research from the Arts and Humanities into a dynamic knowledge exchange with public policy. In representing over twenty diverse disciplines and several interdisciplinary collaborations, we are perfectly positioned to connect advanced scholarship with real-world issues.

The statement of strategy for the newly created Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science aims to support a highly collaborative research eco-system, one which is:

Closely connected with enterprise, public policy and practice, community and voluntary, innovation districts, national, regional and local interests; driving knowledge creation, innovation and human capital; and contributing significantly in addressing major societal challenges.

(Goal 2: Innovation – promote research, knowledge and innovation)Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Statement of Strategy 2021-2023

Arts and Humanities research offers a necessary and distinctive contribution to policy formation across local, national and international landscapes. The Trinity Long Room Hub Policy Initiative seeks to support Arts Humanities engagement in the policy sphere. It aims first, to develop expertise in the communication skills required for evidence-based policy engagement, and second, to highlight the potential and relevance of the Arts and Humanities to professional policy-making bodies.

TLRH Arts Humanities Policy Position Paper

A position paper emerging from the findings of the Policy Initiative 2020-1 is available: Eve Patten, Caoimhe Whelan, Caitriona Curtis, Policy and the Arts & Humanities in Ireland: A Position Paper by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute’(2021), 1-11

Abstract: Academic researchers are coming under increasing pressure to engage with the policy arena. This position paper emerges from discussions and debate on this topic in a roundtable and series of workshops in 2020-21 organised by the Trinity Long Room Hub, the Arts and Humanities Research Institute of Trinity College Dublin. It addresses the positioning of the Arts and Humanities in the policy sphere and reflects on the outcomes of discussions relating to the experience, opportunities and challenges of collaborative research for policy.

Arts Humanities Policy Events

Policy Workshops organised as part of ‘Bridging the Gap: Arts Humanities Policy Workshops’ in 2020 and 2021 included ‘Understanding the Arts and Humanities Policy Arena’, ‘Embedding the Arts and Humanities in the Policy Arena’, ‘Communication for Policy Engagement’, and ‘Report on the Arts Humanities and Policy: A Roundtable Discussion’.

Please follow the links below for related research in this area, including the pioneering Hub-led SHAPE-ID webinar, ‘Interdisciplinarity in Times of Crisis’ and recent articles by the TLRH Public Policy Fellows.

Other related events: RIA and IRC webinar series ‘Research for Public Policy’, 2021

This series is built around the discussion paper on the background and context of this topic by Mary Doyle (Public Policy Fellow, TLRH) Research for Public Policy and Society: Building a Stronger Architecture for Ireland
(PDF, 1.5 MB)

Watch the full RIA and IRC series.