Driving societal change: Success in Welfare Policy and Engagement

A key strength of INVEST lies in its ability to connect science with policymaking. We have advanced research-informed decision-making especially in the fields of social and educational policy.

An important milestone has been the launch of the new online course Scientific Advisor in Political Decision-Making by the Science Advisory Hub in spring 2024. The course equips early-career researchers and state agency advisors with the skills to turn research into policy and to communicate complex ideas clearly to diverse audiences. Feedback has been highly positive, and the course will also be integrated into INVEST’s doctoral programme.

To further support evidence-based governance, INVEST has developed new data infrastructures and collaborative initiatives. The most notable are:

• FIRE (Finnish Infrastructure for Register-Based Research), selected to the national research infrastructure roadmap in 2024. FIRE facilitates the use of register data, supports policy impact assessments, and will influence both national and EU-level regulation on research use of administrative registers.
• IVAR (INVEST–Varha joint research programme 2024–2028), which builds high-quality register, survey and interview datasets on services for children, young people and families in Southwest Finland. These datasets serve both scientific goals and practical decision-making.

The value of register data is widely acknowledged as part of the broader shift towards evidence-based public governance. FIRE will be essential for enabling reproducible research and policy impact assessment across institutions such as parliament, ministries and regional wellbeing counties, while also shaping national and European legislation on the research use of administrative registers.

At the same time, IVAR lays the groundwork for exceptional research on children’s and families’ services. By combining register, survey and interview data, it creates robust and high-quality datasets that strengthen both scientific excellence and informed policymaking.

Through these efforts, INVEST strengthens evidence-based policymaking and builds bridges between science and governance.