Jana Javornik speaks to Petra Petan, a policy assistant in the cabinet of Paolo Gentiloni, the European Commissioner for the Economy. Petra gives some useful insight into the daily work of the European Commission, as well as providing some advice on how academics can work with members of the Commission. 

If you would like to get in touch about this episode, please contact Jana Javornik at [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available. 

For more information about Leeds University Business School’s work with policymakers visit the website.

About the speaker:  

Petra Petan is a political economist with a Masters from the London School of Economics and a degree in English language and literature from the University of Ljubljana. 

After her first job in finance, she realised that policy and EU affairs are where her heart lies and got her first taste for both during a give-month Blue Book traineeship at the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission in 2017. She later moved to a different part of the European Commission, getting acquainted with the European Semester. 

Petra later returned to her hometown of Ljubljana to join the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development as a Senior Advisor on social and employment topics. 

At the end of 2019, she joined the newly formed Commission of President von der Leyen, as Policy Assistant in the Cabinet of Paolo Gentiloni, Commissioner for Economy. Ever since, she’s worked in the cabinet on a vast array of topics, from the European Semester to the Customs Union, with ECOFIN and Eurogroup coordination and Sustainable Development Goals in between. Drawing on her previous experience in employment and social issues, she’s been responsible for the coordination these topics with the cabinet of EU Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights. She’s also been covering financial affairs, international partnerships, and foresight. 

Jana Javornik speaks to Paul Hayes, Senior Policy Fellow at Leeds University Business School, about his experience as a policy manager at a local council and what it is like working in local government. They also discuss how local government engages with academics and how academics can get on policymakers’ radars and build networks with those working in local councils. 

If you'd like to get in touch about this episode, please contact Jana Javornik at [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available. 

For more information about Leeds University Business School’s work with policymakers visit the website. 

About the speaker: Paul Hayes is a Senior Policy Fellow at Leeds University Business School. He was formerly the corporate policy manager at Wakefield Council and policy lead for the Key Cities Group, an association of 27 mid-size UK cities. This role encompassed policy advisory work to local, regional and national politicians; development and authorship of local and regional strategies and plans; engagement with and representation on working groups of UK government and national bodies; and responses to consultations. The role also included scoping, commissioning and joint development of academic and think tank research and engagement with business and voluntary and community sectors. 

Dr Jana Javornik speaks to Louise Scott about what it means to be a Deputy Chief Social Researcher at the Scottish Government, and how academics can engage with government. 

If you would like to get in touch about this episode, please contact Jana Javornik at [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available. 

For more information about Leeds University Business School’s work with policymakers visit the website.  

About the speaker: 

Louise Scott is the Deputy Chief Researcher at the Scottish Government where she is responsible for developing and implementing the strategic priorities of the government social research profession in Scotland. She has worked in the Scottish Government for twenty years, holding research posts in Education, Local Governance, Public Service Reform, Children and Families and the Office of Chief Researcher, and also held a policy role working on Covid. Prior to working in government she was an academic at Loughborough University where she worked on European social policy. 

Jana Javornik speaks to Willem Adema, senior economist in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Social Policy Division, about his experience of working at the OECD and how the OECD uses research to develop policy. They discuss the role of in-house versus academic research in policy process, and the differences between the national and global policy landscape. 

If you would like to get in touch about this episode, please contact Jana Javornik at [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available.

For more information about Leeds University Business School’s work with policymakers visit the website.

About Willem Adema:  

Willem Adema is a Senior Economist in the OECD Social Policy Division. Willem leads a team of analysts of Family, Children, Gender and Housing Policies and his team maintains the OECD Family database; the OECD Gender Data Portal; the OECD Social Expenditure database and the Affordable Housing Database.   

In recent years, OECD reports that were produced by Willem and his team include: Joining Forces for Gender Equality: What is Holding us Back?, A Family Policy Review of Norway (2023, forthcoming), Policy Actions for Affordable Housing in Lithuania (2023, forthcoming), The Economic Case for More Gender Equality in Estonia, Reducing the Gender Employment Gap in Hungary, The Role of Firms in the Gender Wage Gap in Germany, Society at a Glance: Asia/Pacific 2022, Pay Transparency Tools to Close the Gender Wage Gap,  Bringing Household Services out of the Shadows, Policy Actions for Affordable Housing in Latvia, Rejuvenating Korea - Policies for a Changing Society, Is the Last Mile the Longest?  Economic Gains from Gender Equality in Nordic Countries, Dare to Share: Germany's Experience Promoting Equal Partnership in Families and, The Pursuit of Gender Equality: An Uphill Battle.   

Willem graduated from the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and holds a doctorate from St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford.  

Jana Javornik speaks to Sarah Jackson, OBE, about Sarah’s experience in the charity sector where she worked with academics and government, campaigning for policy change and encouraging knowledge exchange around working families and flexible working. 

If you wish to get in touch about this episode, please contact Jana Javornik at [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available. 

For more information about Leeds University Business School’s work with policymakers visit the website. 

About Sarah Jackson, OBE: 

Sarah is a work-life balance and flexible working expert. Her working life has involved campaigning, research and practical action to make paid work more inclusive of parents and carers. She is a Visiting Professor at Cranfield University School of Management, and an adviser, writer, and commentator on flexible and hybrid working. 

As chair of PiPA (Parents and Carers in Performing Arts) she has a particular interest in how the performing arts industry can use flexible working to become more inclusive in its employment of parents and carers onstage, backstage and offstage. 

She is a Senior Associate at Flexibility Works, where she chairs the employers’ hybrid working professional network, and is the research adviser on Flex4Life, the annual survey of workers and employers in Scotland. 

Sarah was, until 2018, the CEO of Working Families, where she commissioned the UK’s first research on the relationships between flexible working and performance. She chaired and judged the Working Families annual employer best practice awards. She also chaired the DWP’s Private Sector Employers Working Group on Flexible Working, which made early calls for jobs to be advertised flexibly, and which advised extensively on the ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service) guidance to support the Right to Request Flexible Working. 

Further reading:  

• Flexible Working and Performance https://workingfamilies.org.uk/publications/flexible-working-and-performance/  Cranfield School of Business and Working Families, 2008 
• Working and fathers: Combining family life and work https://workingfamilies.org.uk/publications/working-and-fathers-combining-family-life-and-work/ Lancaster University School of Management and Working Families, 2011  
• The future of part-time working: the impact of flexible furlough? https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/expertise/changing-world-of-work/the-future-of-part-time-working Cranfield School of Management 
• Best Practice Research Project https://pipacampaign.org/research/best-practice-research-project?referrer=/research  Parents and carers in performing arts 

In this episode of the Business of Policymaking Podcast, Jana Javornik speaks to Janez Potočnik about his experience in the policymaking world across various national, international and supranational levels. They discuss the role of academic research in informing policy agenda and international policy frameworks, and offer insights into how academics can collaborate with policymakers. 

If you wish to get in touch about this episode, please contact Jana Javornik at [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available. 

For more information about Leeds University Business School’s work with policymakers visit the website.

About Janez Potočnik: Dr Janez Potočnik became a Member of the European Commission in 2004, sharing the Enlargement portfolio with Günther Verheugen for half the year. After that, he was responsible for the EC’s Science and Research portfolio until 2010. Between 2010 and 2014 he served a second full mandate as a Member of the European Commission responsible for Environment.  

In 2014, he was appointed Co-Chair of International Resource Panel hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme, Chair of The Forum for the Future of Agriculture, and Chair of the RISE Foundation. He is also a Member of the European Policy Centre's Advisory Council, and a Partner in SYSTEMIQ. Since 2020, he has been a President of the ThinkForest, and a Special Adviser to the Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius. He is also Special Adviser to Hannover Communications. 

He has received honorary degrees from London Imperial College (UK), Ghent University (Belgium), and Aalto University (Finland). 

Janez has received numerous awards for his contributions to sustainable development, including: 

• The United Nations’ Champion of the Earth Award (2013) 
• The Catalan Association of Research Entities’ ACER Award for the visionary contributions and leadership that made possible the European Research Council (ERC) (2014) 
• The European Environmental Bureau’s Twelve Stars for the Environment award for his science-based approach to promoting environmental sustainability (2014) 
• World Economic Forum – Forum of Young Global Leaders and Fortune – Circular Economy Leadership Award (2015) 
• The Carlowitz Society’s Hans-Carl-Von-Carlowitz Award for courageous, open minded, and international work in promoting the idea of the circular economy in Europe (2015). 

Leeds University Business School has launched a new podcast – “The Business of Policymaking”.

The podcast has been created for academics, to help demystify the world of policymaking, debunk some myths about the evidence-based policymaking process, and shine a light on the impact academic research can have on policy.

In this first series, Dr Jana Javornik speaks to guests from the world of policy to find out more about different areas of policy work, and to ask their advice on how academics can collaborate with policymakers and inform policy agenda.