ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between academic research on sustainability and government sustainability policy. It addresses the difficult question of how researchers can actively influence policy while maintaining their academic independence and rigour. This is a particularly topical subject because the UK’s Higher Education Councils are consulting on plans to radically overhaul the way they assess the academic community, including proposals for new ‘impact’ indicators to measure the contribution of research and researchers to public policy-making (HEFCE, 2009). Accordingly, pressure on the academic community to engage with policy-makers is likely to increase significantly over the coming years.
