This study aimed to understand how policy-makers and researchers in Australia experience collaboration and the impediments and enablers they encounter.

An online survey was completed by 170 participants: 58% policy actors and 42% researchers. Respondents reported the primary purpose for collaboration was evidence-informed policy-making. Policy actors reported that the most common barrier to collaboration with academics was ‘budget constraints’ while academics reported ‘budget, ‘political risk’ and ‘structural barriers’. Reported enablers were ‘leadership’ and ‘connections’.

Structural deficits in both policy agencies and research funding systems and environments continue to present challenges to policy-research partnerships, the study finds. Future initiatives could use these findings to implement preferred collaboration methods, alongside rigorous evaluation, to explore ‘what works’ in promoting engagement for evidence-informed policy.