Spotlight on: Real world impact

Informing global policy through open research

We conducted analysis in partnership with Overton, on over 12 million policy documents worldwide to look at how research is used. Results showed that policy documents linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seem to cite research more frequently than non-SDG policy, indicating a strong connection between scientific evidence and decision-making. Crucially, OA articles are cited in policy nearly a year earlier, on average, than non-OA content, highlighting the importance of immediate access in accelerating the use of research in policy contexts.

The analysis also shows the critical role of intermediaries – including think tanks, Non-Governmental organisation (NGO) and intergovernmental organisations – in translating research into policy, reinforcing the importance of collaboration across the research ecosystem. And found that 78% of research cited in SDG policy includes authors based only in countries in the Global North. By contrast, countries in the Global South rarely cite domestic research in national policy – except for India and Brazil. Recommendations from the report highlight the need for continued OA expansion to increase easy knowledge exchange and access; prioritisation of policy-ready content to bridge the gap between academic and action; and continued global collaboration between all members of the research and policy ecosystem.

Supporting innovation and real-world application

 One example is recent ApoB research – a complex protein central to cardiovascular disease. For years, its structure resisted every attempt to reveal it. Then came AlphaFold, developed by Google DeepMind, which transformed a year-long process of painstaking uncertainty into something achievable in minutes.  

The AlphaFold research, published open access in Nature, sparked a wave of new science, with researchers worldwide exploring its potential in everything from malaria to heat-resistant crops to the biological mechanisms behind heart disease. The ApoB research, also published in Nature, shows where that journey leads. By combining insights from years of published research with advances in AI, researchers have been able to uncover how these proteins contribute to disease and explore potential pathways to address it – ultimately impacting millions of lives.  

OA played an important role in this process – enabling researchers to access, connect and build on existing knowledge more quickly. This type of work illustrates how research, when accessible and reusable, can support innovation and help translate discovery into real-world application.