SPARK contribution to edited collection on science and policy

In September 2025, the SPARK research team was invited to contribute a chapter on the role of knowledge in parliaments for an edited collection edited by Johan Christensen, Valerie Pattyn and Cathrine Holst on ‘Organising Science for Policy in Europe’. The book examines how organisational approaches can help us to understand and explain the relationships between science and policy.

The project team’s contribution to the edited volume focuses on parliaments. In particular, the chapter applies an organisational lens to better understand how expert knowledge is organised in four European parliaments: the UK House of Commons, German Bundestag, Spanish Congreso de los Diputados and the European Parliament. The project team maps organisational features for gathering and analysing expert knowledge across three areas: the role of MPs, their staff, and parliamentary party groups; committee systems; and, parliamentary research services. We find that there is significant diversity in approach to expert knowledge: in the UK, emphasis is on independent parliamentary support; in Germany, party groups are central; in Spain, resources have historically been low; and finally, in the European Parliament, the situation is mixed. Overall, the team suggests that the extent of direct party-political involvement affects the extent of direct politicisation of expert knowledge.

In January 2026, Marc Geddes contributed to a workshop hosted by the editors to examine the contributions of different chapters. At the workshop, Marc presented an overview of the paper and received extremely valuable feedback from colleagues. Marc was also discussant for another contribution. Altogether, the workshop was a very valuable exchange of ideas, and the team is grateful for the editors and organisers for all their efforts.

We will provide further information in due course about the publication of the book chapter and the edited book more generally. This will be the first all-team contribution, including also the contribution of our new research fellow who will be appointed to SPARK shortly.

Photo: European Parliament, Strasbourg, France. By Frederic Köberl on Unsplash