Introduction

In this chapter, we focus on external policy research providers in the Netherlands, or, in other words, the contractors of policy research, and on the interaction between the clients and contractors of policy research. Most Dutch policy research at policymaking bodies is provided by internal research agencies, but there is also a substantial market for policy research conducted as contract research, and this chapter describes how this market operates (see also Chapter Four).

The structure of the Dutch market for policy research is quite different from that of the neighbouring countries (Post and Schmidt, 2005). Where, in the Netherlands, a large part of the research is carried out by private agencies, in the neighbouring countries, this research is primarily conducted by universities or state institutions. As a result of this, we see a lot of public tenders in the Netherlands, while in the neighbouring countries, this is only the case to a limited extent. In Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), entire programmes of policy research are conducted by universities via tenders, with a relatively small number of research projects being outsourced to private agencies alongside this. Also, in Great Britain, by far the majority of policy research is outsourced to universities or to agencies directly connected with universities. The ‘market’ for policy research in Germany has been dominated by a relatively small number of state institutions and subsidised institutions with a primarily economic background. In fact, the Dutch market mostly resembles that of the US, where, as in the Netherlands, relatively much policy research is conducted by private research agencies.

For the purposes of this chapter, ‘policy research’ is defined as follows: policy research is applied scholarly research usually into social science-related issues for bodies that develop, implement and evaluate policy for society (Van Hoesel and Leeuw, 2005). This is what distinguishes it from academic research into social issues, which, after all, is primarily aimed at increasing (social-)scientific knowledge and, at most, indirectly at informing policymaking bodies. This is also what distinguishes it from professionals engaged in providing policy advice, which, after all, does not require scientific substantiation. Thereby, it also distinguishes itself from market research, which, after all, is primarily focused on data collection, and while forming part of a policy research project, does not include the entire policy research cycle.