Advice on Consultations

We welcome all RAi funded researchers engaging in policy activity, whether Co-investigators, Research Fellows or Assistants funded on the RAi grant or those funded via a RAi funding call. This may take many forms, but in particular, in submitting evidence to inquiries or consultations, we place no constraints on what colleagues may choose to submit based on their RAi funding, but as a UKRI funded activity, we request that you acknowledge the grant funding in any such policy input. (We would also recommend depositing in an institutional repository and issuing of a DOI).

Sometimes it might be felt appropriate to work together on a single “RAi” response, but in order to do this we must ensure that the submission represents the consensus view across the relevant researchers within RAi – this does then mean we need a process. Hence, please flag opportunities to us (by emailing info@rai.ac.uk) as early as possible, and indicate whether you wish to simply participate or to lead on the response*. We will then communicate the opportunity and seek to assemble a representative cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary team to develop the response.

*Please also check with us to see if someone leads the relevant response. If you are interested in responding, but no one is leading on this response, you might wish to lead on the response.

You can search for the list of relevant consultations and for parliamentary inquiries. Sometimes, we will announce calls for evidence that are very applicable to RAi. You would also need to let us know if you are interested in participating or leading on the response.

Checklist to be fulfilled when submitting RAi response (whether a submission is made via email/survey/ or online form – the same rules apply):
1. I have emailed info@rai.ac.uk and let them know I am interested in responding and leading the consultation* or participating. I have sought help from RAi to see if there are other researchers that might be interested in it.
2. I have formulated a team consisting of researchers from various institutions and I have sought broad input from across the researchers within RAi.
3. I have engaged with the RAi CEO’s Office to notify them that a RAi response is being formulated.
4. I have requested a DOI at my home institution for the grey literature.
5. I have reviewed the examples of the previous responses to understand the format.
6. I have sent the finalised draft to the CEO and Deputy CEO to be signed off.
7. Once the submission was approved by the RAi CEO (or Deputy CEO), I have made a submission (within deadline) and notified info@rai.ac.uk with the link to the completed file and DOI.

*Person who leads on consultation is responsible for completing these above steps.

Things to remember:
• You do not need to respond to all the questions.
• Responses should be written in clear language, with a summary given (where possible), without over-use of technical language and academic jargon. When formulating your response, always state first the most important things you think the government should do, then provide explanations/justifications, with references where applicable.
• All submissions need to be signed off by the CEO’s Office. Please do not leave until the last minute for your submission to be signed off. Parliamentary inquiries tend to have a very tight deadline (one week for submission since a call for evidence is announced), so try to engage with the CEO’s Office before you finalise the response.
• If you want your response to be checked over – email info@rai.ac.uk.
• Please refer to the examples of previous submissions to get an idea of the format that we use.

Examples of previous submissions, such as RAi UK response to the DSIT Public Consultation on the AI Management Essentials Tool, may be found (and downloaded) in our reports section.