Ailsa Burn-Murdoch is a generalist Senior Researcher at the Scottish Parliament in their Financial Scrutiny Unit, a part of SPICe (the Scottish Parliament Information Centre). Catherine Spencer is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews. This session is organised by SGSAH's Culture, Citizenship and Ethics Knowledge Engagement Hub.

This workshop provides a facilitated introduction to communicating academic research in accessible, engaging formats, in the context of the Scottish Parliament’s commitment to citizen participation, and to facilitating the involvement of citizens in scrutiny of policy through deliberative methods. It will be useful for academic researchers interested in learning about how to make submissions to parliamentary committees, engage with scrutinising government policy and/or the Scottish Parliament’s citizenship panels, and how academic experts can provide advice to Parliament. We will explore formats including blog posts and briefs, and more general strategies for presenting academic research to parliament. It will be hands-on and discursive, with time dedicated to writing exercises and individual reflection.

Doctoral students at any stage of their PhD studies who are interested to explore accessible writing generally, and specifically in relation to the role of academic research in the Scottish Parliament. Although focused on the parliamentary context, the emphasis will be on the transferability of accessible writing across a range of projects and contexts.