Can research influence policy?

Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy research comprises heterogeneous set of activities under taken by community of diverse actors. The goal of the STI policy community is to conduct researches to understand effective policies for Science, Policy and Technology and then contribute to public or private sector. In order to understand whether or not STI policy researches contribute to the benefit of government, this study selects the UK as the case study and investigates ways of linking STI policy research to government policy practice and proposes a three-step linking mechanism, i.e. 1) Knowledge Creation, 2) Dissemination of research and 3) Making contribution to policy practice. The mechanism facilitates linking from STI policy research communities to policy practice. Each of the four steps is empirically analyzed by comparing two famous cases- UK Technology Foresight and Technopolis in order to identify determinants of STI policy research communities making contribution to government policy practice.