Tome Sandevski heads the policy engagement unit at Goethe-University Frankfurt, where he coordinates the joint policy engagement projects of the Rhine-Main-Universities Goethe-University Frankfurt, Technical University Darmstadt and Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz.

• Guided tours are a great interactive experience: Scientists can present their research and policymakers can ask questions.

• Guided tours are an easy to organise format allowing for the involvement of scientists, who are usually not in touch with policymakers and vice versa.

• The research sits or labs must allow for a high degree of visualisation of research issues.

• The scientists have to communicate in a clearly and concisely and allow for questions from the policymakers.

Guided tours of research sites provide great opportunities for policymakers to gain better understanding of research activities and their possible applications. Researchers can demonstrate machines or applications. In doing so, they can not only explain underlying mechanism but also elaborate on possible applications, which are of relevance for policymakers. A single researcher can guide policymakers through a lab or other research site. Alternatively, the policymakers might move from station to station, which are explained by different researchers at the respective station. Guided tours can create a lasting impact, because they activate various senses: Policymakers listen to the information provided by the scientists while simultaneously seeing, touching or even smelling objects or applications. Visits allow scientists to present their current research. Since policymakers can ask questions to scientists and scientists can pose questions to policymakers, visits of research sites are a great interactive experience for both sides.

Policymakers can visit research sites on an individual basis, in small groups or larger groups. Groups of policymakers can comprise participants from a single or various policymaking institutions. The duration of guided tours can vary between an hour or several hours depending on the seize of the research site, the number of stations, and the time they scientists want to spend preparing and conducting the guided tours. Guided tours of research sites can be organised as stand-alone events. They can also be organises as parts of conferences, workshops, or other events allowing the participants to move and interact.

The scientists have to communicate clearly and concisely. The scientists should spare enough time for questions from the policymakers. Early career researchers or senior scientists can conduct guided tours.

The research sites should allow for a high degree of visualisation. For example, while scientists might conduct groundbreaking research on health issues in a lab, showing rows of test tubes and petri dishes might not add value to transfer knowledge via formats like powerpoint presentations or lectures. However, guided tours through labs, where policymaker see how robots move or where they can use virtual-reality-headsets, might help them better understand the potentials and challenges of technological innovations.

Scientists

Content: Researchers need to prepare brief presentations for the objects and applications they would like to show. If various scientists are involved in the guided tour, coordination will be needed between the researchers. Depending on the structure of the tour, the number of participant, and the background of the participant the guides may ask the policymakers before the tour regarding the issues they are most interested in and structure the tour accordingly.

Organisational issues: Scientists might also have to rearrange or maybe even clean-up the objects they would like to present. Also, scientists have to assess whether the scientists in the research sites can conduct their work as usual or whether they have to pause their work during the guided tour.

Resources in terms of time: Conducting guided tours should not take more than a couple of hours. If the scientists never prepared presentations on the objects and applications they want to show to the policymakers, preparing the presentations to an outside audience can take several hours and a day or two. However, once scientists have prepared the presentations and the course of the tour, replicating the exercise will take less time the next times.

If the researchers opt to evaluate the format, they will have to prepare an evaluation sheet, which has to be sent to the policymakers after the tour.

Resources in terms of funding: Possible items of expenditure include catering, reimbursement of travel costs for policymakers, advertisement of event, or compensation of participating researchers.

Knowledge exchange managers and research managers

Knowledge exchange managers can provide crucial support to researchers by identifying policymakers and inviting policymakers. Knowledge exchange managers can follow current policy developments to brief scientists about topics, which are of great interest for policymakers.

In addition, knowledge exchange managers can provide support by designing leaflets and sharepics, prepare social media posts and press releases, organise catering (if needed), help the guests from policymaking institutions with directions, and deal with administrative issues like granting access to research sites to guests and following safety protocols.

Knowledge exchange managers should provide a list of the policymakers attending the guided tours to the scientists. They can write follow-up mails to both policymakers and scientists to stay in touch after participating in the guided tours.

Knowledge exchange officers can disseminate evaluation sheets to the policymakers and scientists or conduct feedback-calls with them.