The third area in which Integrate Consulting works is Policy Research.  In this Integrate is well positioned to be a bridge between Academia and Community, also feeding the results of both into the Policy analyses which we undertake.   Integrate can translate community to policy makers, and policy to community.  This is further underscored by strong academic practice which enables us to take data from the field and turn it into principles, typologies and, in particular, to relate on-the-ground phenomena to Policy Outcomes desired by governments and other policy funders.  As a result we are au fait with Target Outcomes, Strategic Priorities and the constantly-multiplying lexicon of community development policy.

As once explained to me by a Canadian Justice Minister, policy is somewhat akin to gambling in that a policy maker sees a social, economic or legal situation and creates a policy intended to produce a future outcome.  How close the actual future outcome is to the one intended is the result of a quality policy process which doesn't just understand the mechanics of making policy, but also the social millieu in which that policy is to be inserted.  As the Minister said, "The more we know about something, the better we can predict expected outcomes".  One of Integrate's strengths is pulling general principles out of a complex mix of people, communities, change and relationships.  Through rigorous social science methods we can find and describe innovative and valuable trends and pioneers who are acting in their own and their communities' best interests and learn from them.  We can then return that learning to our policy commissioners in ways which offer support for the development or evaluation of new policy.

Examples of this work include two studies for the Forestry Commission.  The first was called "Understanding Forestry's Role in Rural Development" and the second was a report on the Social Benefits of Forestry for People for the Forestry Commission.  I have also undertaken a baseline review of Support for Scots Language, a review of socio-economic research on rural development in Scotland for the Scottish Executive (as it was called at that time) and work for Highlands and Islands Enterprises.