the sipher blueprint
How did the Consortium build a prototype for public policy systems science?
tn
t3
t2
t1
Beyond SIPHER
Close to SIPHER endpoint
SIPHER midpoint
SIPHER origins
Systems curiosity
Systems experienced
Systems experts
Systems futures
A systems orientation
Systems exposures
A prototype
Evidence
At this timepoint, research and policy shared an orientation towards health inequalities as a complex system issue. The Consortium had shared ambitions to address this using systems thinking and systems science methods.
We were exposed to:
- Different ways of seeing the world
- Different problem formulations
- Different policy domains
- A plurality of evidence
Collectively, we created insight into 'how-to' coproduce between research & policy, navigate interdisciplinarity & produced a suite of methods and applications for public policy problem solving.
Our evaluation pointed towards individual advancements in systems thinking and group level shifts in addressing problems (e.g. further systems science grants and addressing policy problems)
Near the end of SIPHER (2024), the accumulation of knowledge of systems and system science methods raised levels of expertise across the Consortium.
Moving the blueprint into the future means that policy partners are 'primed' for systems approaches and the research system is more capable and has more capacity.
SIPHER was built from scratch as a systems science programme. At the time, it was clear "there was no formula for a systems science project" (Academic interview 2024)
By midpoint (2022), all Consortium members had been subject to a range of exposures, with observable impacts. People were building deeper knowledge of how systems could be interrogated and understood.
BECOMING SYSTEMS EXPERTS
- The shift to the final phases of SIPHER and the impetus for outputs was an opportunity for consolidated learning.
- 'Doing' and, latterly, 'being' SIPHER drew together collective learning on how a systems science for public policy was possible.
- Individual learning was evident in altered ways of thinking.
- Collective learning was in the mobilisation of the suite of SIPHER products, each of which was responsive to the particular systems challenge being faced.
Quotes from the evaluation
"[Now] I think there is something about the coming together of the whole SIPHER wheel and the overarching, [...] contribution of each workstrand to this overarching end product and I think a clearer sense amongst all of us around what this end product is that we’re working to and how the workstrand interactions feed into that. There’s something a bit more about the central direction, the central vision. Academic interview, 2022.
Quotes from the evaluation
On hopes for SIPHER: The theory of change modelling I guess and the complex systems modelling should help us get a better understanding if we do X plus Y, Z, what’s happening in terms of the different outcomes. We can then model in [our] cost-benefit framework. But I’m hoping that’s what’s going to be achieved. It’s a new area for us in terms of that modelling type approach, so it’s quite experimental and no one’s really done it for these sort of policy areas before. So it seems to work in the cars and aeroplanes, so seeing how it works with the social issues will be interesting. [...] I’m hopeful there are opportunities to transfer those sorts of techniques.
Policy interview, 2019
Quotes from the evaluation
I think it's helped people thinking differently. I think that there's been huge impact in the public mental health work. That's not an output as such but what we've done is we've held their hand [policy partners] through a process and I think that's been hugely valuable. Focus Group participant, 2024. It's made me rethink one or two things about my own discipline and my own topic. So I certainly benefited from being involved. I got to see how what I deliver can be used, so that was that was interesting for me too, because I used to just generate numbers and didn’t know where they went.
Academic interview, 2024.
Quote from the evaluation
It was a project that felt to me really novel in many ways. I haven't seen anything like it before. It really has made people think extraordinarily hard and grapple with problems and paradigms and mindsets and world views and all of those things in a in a way that I think… maybe we'll have legacy where we can't see it in the way people approach future projects, how to think about things? What kind of research they want to do in future. I don't know how you capture any of this. I mean, they might run away and say I'll never ever do anything systemsy again, but for many people it seems to have done something to their way of approaching things. That is really valuable if we can have that paradigm shift of doing research slightly differently, and everybody does that.
Then there will be sort of those ripple effects across future projects. (Academic interview, 2024)
experience meant ADAPTATION
Over time, Consortium members had experienced multiple disciplines, new ways of working across policy and community and different ways of working between professions. We learnt:
- The importance of well-timed intervention; when to move and when to stand back.
- Ways of communicating for clarity.
- Chains of work dependency (workflow)
- The role of embedded researchers as bridging agents.
This was challenging learning for many and disrupted by COVID for all.
capability and capacity for future public policy systems science
Frequent changes in the systems within which policy operates requires adaptive policy responses. Adaptive policy requires a capable, diverse and joined up scientific base. Creating this enabling environment was an ambition of SIPHER. With bumps along the way (for example, resilient policy silos) and over time, the Consortium has gradually devised this blueprint, a way of 'doing' and 'being' public policy systems science. This is being carried into future, similar, collaborations.
The SIPHER blueprint
turning curiosity into reality.
From the start, policy and research partners were curious about how public policy systems could be supported by systems science insight. The Consortium was set up intentionally to:
- Ensure policy had a strong vision for improved equity outcomes to complex problems and a commitment to act.
- Bring policy and research together with a shared ambition to use a systems approach.
- Bring about methodological plurality, where multiple traditions could contribute in different ways.
- Collaborate.
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Transcript
the sipher blueprint
How did the Consortium build a prototype for public policy systems science?
tn
t3
t2
t1
Beyond SIPHER
Close to SIPHER endpoint
SIPHER midpoint
SIPHER origins
Systems curiosity
Systems experienced
Systems experts
Systems futures
A systems orientation
Systems exposures
A prototype
Evidence
At this timepoint, research and policy shared an orientation towards health inequalities as a complex system issue. The Consortium had shared ambitions to address this using systems thinking and systems science methods.
We were exposed to:
Collectively, we created insight into 'how-to' coproduce between research & policy, navigate interdisciplinarity & produced a suite of methods and applications for public policy problem solving.
Our evaluation pointed towards individual advancements in systems thinking and group level shifts in addressing problems (e.g. further systems science grants and addressing policy problems)
Near the end of SIPHER (2024), the accumulation of knowledge of systems and system science methods raised levels of expertise across the Consortium.
Moving the blueprint into the future means that policy partners are 'primed' for systems approaches and the research system is more capable and has more capacity.
SIPHER was built from scratch as a systems science programme. At the time, it was clear "there was no formula for a systems science project" (Academic interview 2024)
By midpoint (2022), all Consortium members had been subject to a range of exposures, with observable impacts. People were building deeper knowledge of how systems could be interrogated and understood.
BECOMING SYSTEMS EXPERTS
Quotes from the evaluation
"[Now] I think there is something about the coming together of the whole SIPHER wheel and the overarching, [...] contribution of each workstrand to this overarching end product and I think a clearer sense amongst all of us around what this end product is that we’re working to and how the workstrand interactions feed into that. There’s something a bit more about the central direction, the central vision. Academic interview, 2022.
Quotes from the evaluation
On hopes for SIPHER: The theory of change modelling I guess and the complex systems modelling should help us get a better understanding if we do X plus Y, Z, what’s happening in terms of the different outcomes. We can then model in [our] cost-benefit framework. But I’m hoping that’s what’s going to be achieved. It’s a new area for us in terms of that modelling type approach, so it’s quite experimental and no one’s really done it for these sort of policy areas before. So it seems to work in the cars and aeroplanes, so seeing how it works with the social issues will be interesting. [...] I’m hopeful there are opportunities to transfer those sorts of techniques. Policy interview, 2019
Quotes from the evaluation
I think it's helped people thinking differently. I think that there's been huge impact in the public mental health work. That's not an output as such but what we've done is we've held their hand [policy partners] through a process and I think that's been hugely valuable. Focus Group participant, 2024. It's made me rethink one or two things about my own discipline and my own topic. So I certainly benefited from being involved. I got to see how what I deliver can be used, so that was that was interesting for me too, because I used to just generate numbers and didn’t know where they went. Academic interview, 2024.
Quote from the evaluation
It was a project that felt to me really novel in many ways. I haven't seen anything like it before. It really has made people think extraordinarily hard and grapple with problems and paradigms and mindsets and world views and all of those things in a in a way that I think… maybe we'll have legacy where we can't see it in the way people approach future projects, how to think about things? What kind of research they want to do in future. I don't know how you capture any of this. I mean, they might run away and say I'll never ever do anything systemsy again, but for many people it seems to have done something to their way of approaching things. That is really valuable if we can have that paradigm shift of doing research slightly differently, and everybody does that. Then there will be sort of those ripple effects across future projects. (Academic interview, 2024)
experience meant ADAPTATION
Over time, Consortium members had experienced multiple disciplines, new ways of working across policy and community and different ways of working between professions. We learnt:
- The importance of well-timed intervention; when to move and when to stand back.
- Ways of communicating for clarity.
- Chains of work dependency (workflow)
- The role of embedded researchers as bridging agents.
This was challenging learning for many and disrupted by COVID for all.capability and capacity for future public policy systems science
Frequent changes in the systems within which policy operates requires adaptive policy responses. Adaptive policy requires a capable, diverse and joined up scientific base. Creating this enabling environment was an ambition of SIPHER. With bumps along the way (for example, resilient policy silos) and over time, the Consortium has gradually devised this blueprint, a way of 'doing' and 'being' public policy systems science. This is being carried into future, similar, collaborations.
The SIPHER blueprint
turning curiosity into reality.
From the start, policy and research partners were curious about how public policy systems could be supported by systems science insight. The Consortium was set up intentionally to: