European research does more than generate new knowledge. Increasingly, it also helps shape the policies that guide Europe’s future. Within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), this idea is gaining new importance through a growing focus on feedback to policy: a process that connects the experience of researchers and project results with the development of stronger European policies. That’s also the IANUS project’s purpose.
As the European Union continues to invest in research and innovation through Horizon Europe, the need to understand how funded projects contribute to society has become more important than ever. The European Commission is not only interested in supporting excellent science; it also wants to ensure that the knowledge produced through EU-funded projects can help improve the design of future programmes and support wider European priorities, from innovation and competitiveness to sustainability and social inclusion.
Feedback to policy is built on a simple but powerful principle: research should not end when a project finishes but it should also have the purpose of turning research into policy insight. The knowledge, experience and lessons developed during a project can provide valuable insight for policymakers working to improve future funding instruments and policy frameworks. For this reason, the European Commission has introduced dedicated actions that encourage projects to analyse how research outcomes can inform policymaking. According to the MSCA Feedback to Policy call, these initiatives aim to strengthen the links between research results and European priorities while improving the visibility of the long-term contribution of MSCA projects, like IANUS, to the European Research Area and EU policy objectives.
For the IANUS project, this means looking beyond individual research outputs and examining broader patterns across the programme. By studying project portfolios, collecting stakeholder perspectives and identifying successful practices, feedback to policy helps transform scientific knowledge into practical recommendations for future action.
The European Commission’s interest in feedback to policy reflects a wider commitment to evidence-based policymaking. Public investment in research is expected to generate not only academic excellence but also measurable public value. To achieve this, policymakers need to understand what works, what can be improved, and how research can better respond to Europe’s evolving needs. Feedback mechanisms provide a structured way to learn from funded projects and to identify how programmes can become more effective over time. They allow policymakers to understand which approaches generate stronger impact, where obstacles remain, and how collaboration between institutions, researchers and society can be strengthened. The Commission has increasingly recognised that researchers themselves can provide valuable perspectives on the realities of innovation systems. Their experience can reveal barriers that may not always be visible from the institutional level, including challenges related to mobility, interdisciplinary cooperation and the translation of research into real-world solutions. By financing feedback to policy activities, the Commission is investing in a more adaptive and responsive research ecosystem, one that learns continuously from its own experience.
One of the reasons feedback to policy fits naturally within the MSCA programme is that both share a bottom-up perspective and philosophy. MSCA has always been known for giving researchers the freedom to define their own research paths. Rather than prescribing narrow thematic priorities, the programme encourages ideas to emerge directly from researchers’ expertise, curiosity and creativity. This bottom-up model has been one of the programme’s greatest strengths because it allows innovation to develop in unexpected ways.
The same philosophy lies at the heart of feedback to policy. Instead of seeing policy as something created only at the institutional level, feedback to policy recognises that valuable policy knowledge can also emerge from researchers, project partners and local stakeholders.
In the IANUS approach, the goal is to capture these experiences and ensure they can contribute to broader strategic thinking. The project recognises that research can generate not only scientific advances but also important lessons for how European programmes can evolve in the future. In this way, feedback to policy creates a bridge between individual research experiences and European decision-making.
Building stronger connections
A key element of IANUS’s approach is dialogue. Stronger connections between researchers, institutions, policymakers and society help ensure that knowledge can move more effectively between science and policy.
Projects working in the feedback to policy area create indeed spaces for exchange through stakeholder consultations, policy workshops, thematic analyses and cross-sector discussions. These activities help build a shared understanding of how research can contribute to public priorities and how policy can better support future innovation. For project consortia, this creates an opportunity to extend impact beyond traditional academic dissemination. Instead of communicating only results, projects can contribute directly to improving the systems that support European research. In this context, the IANUS project has placed particular emphasis on qualitative interviews as one of its activities. A dedicated set of open-ended questions was developed to explore what defines the success of European projects, with the aim of highlighting both strengths and areas where improvements are needed. These interviews were conducted with beneficiaries of MSCA projects, specifically those working on the Cancer Mission and and Smart Cities, as well as with policymakers directly involved in these programmes. This in-depth exchange provides invaluable insights and plays a crucial role in fostering a more direct and meaningful dialogue between researchers and European policymakers.
As Europe faces increasingly complex challenges, from climate change to digital transformation, the relationship between research and policy becomes more important. Feedback to policy offers a way to make that relationship stronger, more dynamic and more meaningful. For IANUS, this work represents more than a reporting exercise. It is part of a broader effort to ensure that research does not simply generate knowledge, but also helps shape the future of European policymaking by listening more carefully to the research community.
Europe can build policies that are not only informed by science but also improved by it, and IANUS’s outcome aim exactly to this purpose.
This article was written by Ginevra Rocchi, Sutra.
