The UK has scientific advisers at the top of government, but with science, engineering and technology playing greater and greater roles in our lives there is a correspondingly greater need for a broader understanding of these issues by policy makers. One source of advice might be academic institutions, but there is a mixed history of working together partly because policy makers need solutions and decisions whilst academic institutions are concerned with understanding the complexity of topics – and both operate with different timescales and required levels of proof. David Cleevely will argue that a better approach is to use peer to peer networking between members of the two groups, where each expose their own unique insights. He will draw parallels with systems of open innovation and open policy making, and set out why democracies need to draw more effectively on insights from science and engineering and how this could best be achieved.