Insight for knowledge brokers: factors predicting relationships with federal staffers.

Background: In theory and practice, it is understood that personal relationships play a role in the effectiveness of translational models that bridge research and policy. These models can be made more efficient by understanding factors impacting relationships between policy-making players and third-party knowledge brokers.

Aims and objectives: This study investigates a range of personal and office-level characteristics in predicting initial meetings and sustained relationships between federal staffers and knowledge brokers.

Methods: A public affairs database, Quorum, was used to pull data on staffers who were contacted between September 2021 and August 2022 during an optimisation phase of the Research-to-Policy Collaboration (RPC). Logistic regression models were used to understand the impact of the characteristics on outcomes such as attending initial meetings and attending meetings facilitated by the RPC.

Findings: Mid-level staffers and democratic staffers were more likely to meet with RPC staff. Office tenure was predictive of lower odds of meeting with RPC staff. For significant associations, the sample was stratified by political party to determine if the results differed by party.

Discussion and conclusions: Together, these results suggest there are both personal and office-level characteristics affecting the federal staffers' engagement with knowledge brokers. This work further informs efforts to bridge the gap between science and policy by informing knowledge brokers which offices and staffers they may want to approach.