EU Project Policy Impact: How to Reach and Inform Policymakers

EU-funded research and innovation projects are not only expected to produce excellent scientific or technical results. Increasingly, they are also expected to show how those results can be used, understood and taken up beyond the project consortium.

One important part of this impact pathway is policy outreach.

Many Horizon Europe and EU-funded projects generate evidence that can help decision-makers understand emerging challenges, design better policies, evaluate existing measures or prepare future funding priorities. The European Research Executive Agency (REA) has published practical guidance on how EU-funded R&I projects can share scientific evidence with policymakers and strengthen their policy impact. Source: REA publication

For coordinators, project managers, communication leads and exploitation managers, this is a useful reminder: policy impact does not happen automatically. It needs to be planned, translated and communicated in the right format, to the right people, at the right time.

Why policy outreach matters for EU projects

Scientific evidence from EU-funded projects can contribute to different parts of the policy process. REA explains that project results may help inform legislative initiatives, future research and innovation funding programmes, policy evaluations and international negotiations.

This is especially relevant for projects working on topics such as climate, health, digitalisation, security, mobility, agriculture, energy, skills, industrial transformation or social innovation.

However, having relevant results is not enough. Policymakers usually deal with large volumes of information and limited time. REA’s guidance on 10 steps to reach and inform policymakers highlights that scientific evidence needs to be communicated clearly if it is to stand out and be heard.

This means EU projects should not only ask: What have we achieved? They should also ask: Who could use this evidence? Which policy debate is it connected to? When would this information be useful? How can we present it in a clear and practical way? What action, decision or discussion could it support?

Policy impact starts with understanding the policy context

A strong policy outreach strategy begins with the policy context. REA recommends that projects monitor policy developments in their field, understand policymakers’ needs at different levels and identify which project results are most relevant and when they should be shared.

For EU projects, this can include European Commission priorities and work programmes, EU strategies and legislative initiatives, public consultations and calls for evidence, European Parliament discussions, national and regional policy documents, standardisation processes, mission-oriented policy agendas, and sector-specific platforms and partnerships.

The project’s original call topic can also be a useful starting point. It often already indicates which policy objectives, challenges or expected outcomes the project is expected to support.

For Nexuswelt, this is a key point: communication and dissemination should not be disconnected from the policy environment. If a project wants to be visible and relevant, it should understand where its results fit into wider European priorities.

From project cycle to policy cycle

One useful idea in REA’s starter kit is the connection between the project cycle and the policy cycle. Project phases such as topic preparation, call opening, proposal drafting and project implementation can connect with policy phases such as priorities and planning, policy design, consultation, implementation and evaluation.

This matters because policy impact is often about timing. A project result may be scientifically strong, but if it is shared too late, too generally or with the wrong audience, it may not influence the discussion.

On the other hand, even an early insight, a validated use case, a stakeholder need or a practical recommendation can be valuable if it reaches the right policy audience at the right moment. Projects should therefore plan early for policy impact and review this plan during implementation.

Seven questions every EU project should ask

REA’s starter kit suggests that projects plan for policy impact by answering practical questions: why they are engaging, who they want to inform, who they should collaborate with, what their key messages are, what type of evidence they have, when to share results and which channel to use.

Why are we engaging?

Define the purpose clearly. Are you trying to inform a policy debate, support a legislative process, provide evidence for a public consultation, raise awareness of a challenge, or show how project results can support EU priorities?
Who should be informed?

Not every policymaker is the right audience. A project should identify whether the relevant level is European, national, regional or local. It should also distinguish between policy officers, agencies, public authorities, parliamentary actors, expert groups, advisory boards, platforms or stakeholder networks.
Who should we collaborate with?

Policy outreach is stronger when projects do not work in isolation. REA recommends joining forces with other stakeholders, including researchers, academic institutions, industry, civil society organisations and complementary projects.
What are our key messages?

Policy messages should be connected to concrete problems and decisions. They should explain what the project found, why it matters and what policymakers can do with this evidence.
What type of evidence do we have?

Evidence can include data, figures, models, best practices, case studies, stakeholder feedback, scenarios, pilot results or examples from implementation. The key is to present it in a format that is easy to transfer to the policy question.
When should we share results?

Policy outreach should start early and adapt to the changing context. Timely input to identified policy initiatives is often more useful than a late, generic summary.
Which channel should we use?

Different audiences need different formats. A policy brief may work for one audience, while a workshop, public consultation response, conference session or direct meeting may be more suitable for another.

Choosing the right format for policy outreach

One of the most practical parts of REA’s starter kit is the overview of possible channels for sharing evidence with policymakers. These formats serve different purposes and should be selected according to the target audience, policy context and timing.

Format	How it can support policy impact
Policy brief	Summarises the policy issue and provides clear, actionable recommendations based on project results.
Workshops and meetings with policymakers	Help projects engage directly with policymakers, receive feedback and build relationships.
Conferences and events	Present findings to a broader audience, identify synergies and connect with other projects, stakeholders and policy actors.
Project reporting	At EU level, reporting can explain how project results or activities are relevant for specific policy areas.
Working groups, networks and platforms	Connect the project to ongoing dialogues and build credibility in a specific field.
Public consultations	Allow projects to share evidence directly in response to policy initiatives and calls for feedback.
Academic publications	Help establish credibility, especially for scientifically minded policy audiences.
Social media	Supports engagement with policymakers and can foster authenticity when researchers and experts use their personal professional accounts.

How to make project evidence understandable

REA’s 10-step guidance recommends adapting language to the audience, avoiding overly technical wording, keeping messages simple, using a clear structure and making evidence visual and relevant.

For EU projects, this means that policy communication should not look like a technical deliverable copied into a shorter document.

A good policy-oriented message should start with the main conclusion, explain why the issue matters now, connect the result to a policy challenge, avoid unnecessary jargon, include clear evidence, show practical implications, offer realistic recommendations, use visuals where helpful and make the next step clear.

The goal is not to oversimplify the science. The goal is to make the evidence usable.

From dissemination to policy impact

Many EU projects already have communication, dissemination and exploitation plans. But policy outreach is often not developed deeply enough. This can create a gap.

A project may publish articles, attend events and share updates online, but still fail to reach the people who could use its results in policy design, programme planning, regulation, public services or strategic decision-making.

To avoid this, policy outreach should be integrated into the wider impact strategy: communication with visibility, dissemination with targeted knowledge transfer, exploitation with practical use of results, policy outreach with evidence-informed decision-making, and stakeholder engagement with long-term uptake.

This is where Nexuswelt’s work is especially relevant. For many projects, the challenge is not only to communicate more, but to communicate more strategically.

Useful EU tools and resources

REA’s starter kit points projects towards EU tools and platforms that can help them connect with stakeholders and increase the impact of their results. These include CORDIS, the Horizon Dashboard, the EU research and innovation community platform, the Horizon Results Platform, the Knowledge Valorisation Platform and booster services for project impact.

For project teams, these tools can support finding related projects and synergies, understanding the EU project landscape, identifying potential stakeholders, valorising exploitable results, connecting with the wider R&I community and strengthening the visibility of project outcomes.

These tools are not only useful at the end of a project. They can also support stakeholder mapping, dissemination planning and exploitation strategy during implementation.

Practical checklist for EU project policy outreach

Policy context

Have we identified the relevant EU, national or regional policy priorities?
Are we monitoring current policy debates, consultations or legislative initiatives?
Do we understand how our project topic connects to public policy needs?

Audience

Which policymakers or public authorities could benefit from our evidence?
What do they already know about the topic?
What type of information do they need?

Evidence

Which project results are relevant for policy?
Are our findings supported by data, pilots, examples or stakeholder input?
Can we explain the evidence in a clear and credible way?

Message

What is the main policy-relevant message?
Why does it matter now?
What recommendation can we make?

Format

Should this be a policy brief, event input, workshop, consultation response, infographic, article or direct meeting?
Can we use visuals to make the evidence easier to understand?
Do we need different formats for different audiences?

Timing

When is the best moment to share the evidence?
Is there a consultation, policy initiative, event or reporting moment we can use?
Are we adapting our plan as the policy context changes?

Follow-up

Have we documented who we contacted?
Are we building relationships, not only sending information once?
Are we tracking whether the evidence was used, discussed or requested again?

Final thought: policy impact needs structure

Policy impact is not only about being visible. It is about making project evidence understandable, timely and useful for decision-makers.

For EU-funded projects, this requires planning from the beginning: understanding the policy context, identifying relevant audiences, translating results into clear messages, selecting the right channels and building relationships over time.

REA’s guidance is a valuable resource for project teams that want to move beyond standard dissemination and think more strategically about how research and innovation results can contribute to evidence-informed policymaking.

At Nexuswelt, we support EU-funded projects and consortia with communication, dissemination, exploitation, stakeholder engagement and policy-oriented impact strategies. Our focus is to help projects make their results visible, understandable and useful for the audiences that matter.