Sent

Out of 4,515 candidates standing for election, we emailed those whose emails were publicly available, a total of 3,687 (81%). This included at least one candidate in every constituency and covered the majority of those standing for major parties.

Replies

It is worth noting that we did not explicitly ask candidates for a reply to our email; our intention was to present them with the evidence we have gathered and encourage them to use it as they saw fit during their campaigning and interactions with constituents.

However, we were pleased to receive many positive responses from across the political spectrum. At the time of writing, 133 candidates have replied (3.5% of those emailed), all of whom expressed positive sentiment.

From these replies, we saw that candidates had clearly read the substance of the email and delved further into the Guide to R&D on the Doorstep. Some respondents shared that they already valued R&D and either have personal experience of the sector or recognise the value it has for their constituency: “Thanks for launching a great campaign, I am an enthusiast for both science and innovation so it was music to my ears”. Others were perhaps less previously aware of R&D yet found our email a useful tool for their future campaigning: “To be honest it opened my eyes on what can be achieved, so I’ll be using the information in the near future. and I am very happy to champion it.”.

Next

It is our hope that this engagement will act as a springboard from which to build strong relationships with MPs in the new Parliament. MPs and ministers are in their roles to represent and champion the views of the public, so it is our job to convey to them what we know the public think about R&D.

That way, we can all work together to utilise R&D to tackle society’s big challenges.