Denis Naughton's life after politics: Joining the dots between research and public policy

When you are one of just 500 people worldwide to belong to a group that includes Nobel Laureates and former prime ministers, it's clear that you are doing something of great significance.

That's exactly the position that Drum native and former minister Denis Naughten finds himself in, after he was nominated and elected to the World Academy of Art and Science in July.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent this week about life since leaving politics last year, Denis explained that he had initially taken a bit of downtime, before participating in conferences as part of his work with the Academy, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union - a group made up of parliamentarians for 181 countries worldwide.

Until October last, Denis had been on a committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union for the previous four years and chaired the committee for two years. The committee was looking at how to feed science into policy making to promote more evidence-based decision making.

The World Academy of Art and Science was established in 1960 and counts among its founders Robert Oppenheimer, Bertrand Russell, Joseph Needham (co-founder of UNESCO), Lord Boyd Orr (first Director General of The Food Agriculture Authority), Brock Chisholm (first Director General of WHO), and many more.

"These were people who, after the Second World War, after the emergence of the Cold War, felt that there was a need for the academic community, both within the arts and sciences, to come together and promote and encourage peace," explained Denis.

"There’s approximately 500 Fellows around the world, I was elected in July of this year to the Academy on foot of work I was doing within the Inter-Parliamentary Union and with the World Academy on a concept of what's called The Science for Peace Schools, so it's been very much focused on peace-building in the Middle East prior to the October 7 attacks and the subsequent fallout in Gaza.

"But prior to that we did a lot of work in the Middle East and work in the Sahel Region in west Africa, and the Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia, working with parliamentarians and the scientific and expert community, bringing them together under the common umbrella of science, leaving politics outside the door."

Denis had been working with the Academy for the last three years and said it was a great honour to be nominated and elected as a member.

And with a scientific background and a wealth of experience in the political sphere behind him, Denis has brought the two strands together in the form of a niche consultancy that sees him connect researchers and politicians in a bid to have policy informed by research.

"I'm working with some of the research community to turn some of their research into policy solutions that can be applied by governments into actions to solve problems, whether it be in relation to housing, health, energy and so forth.

"And I'm also working with industry that would have maybe an innovative solution and they need, maybe, a change in the law or a change in the regulations in order to be able to deploy that solution.

"For example, tomorrow morning we could put up to 30% hydrogen into the gas network in Ireland, reduce our carbon footprint by 30%, and generate hydrogen from the surplus electricity that we have on windfarms at night, which isn't being used at the moment because everyone is in bed, and that electricity could be used to generate hydrogen which could be put into the gas network and reduce our dependency on imported natural gas, reduce our dependency on fossil fuels straight away.

"However, in order to do that there would need to be a change in the standards and regulations regarding what's allowed in the natural gas network," he said.

Giving a practical example of his work, Denis explained that 27 students from ATU and TUS will have the opportunity during Science Week to engage with TDs in the Dáil and explain the research they uncovered in their 4th year projects, and how it could impact policy as well as the effect such a policy change would have on people's lives.

Most of the work Denis is now doing is elsewhere in Europe, though he is doing some work in Ireland.

He said that during his time as a Minister (for Communications, Climate Action and Environment), he worked in a very technical government department and he needed to look at research and convert it into useable actions. However, while he had the scientific knowledge to understand the language, not all politicians come from scientific background.

“What I'm trying to do is work with the research community and help them to covert their research outputs into clear policy actions that politicians can take and then work with the politicians to help them implement that.

“It's a very niche consultancy, but it's an area where there isn't anyone with the level of expertise that I have. There are people doing this who are coming from an academic background, there are a few politicians doing this but don't have an understanding of the academic background, and I've straddled both over the years.

"I've applied it in very practical terms over the years and as a result of that I have a unique set of tools that I'm now using to facilitate that," he said.

In fact, Denis returned to academia during Covid and completed a Masters part-time while he was still serving as a TD. He explained that before he first entered politics he had been working on a PhD in Food Microbiology in UCC and, at the time, he had enough work done to complete a Masters and always regretted not doing it.

"I went back and did my Masters over two years part-time on Health and Science Communication in DCU, and I really, really enjoyed it. What it did was, it gave me the opportunity to step back from the treadmill of what politics is, but also gave me time to reflect on some of the work I had been doing in politics, and maybe taking a different perspective on it. For me, it was great that way, and it made it easier then in transitioning out of Leinster House," he said.

As part of his involvement with the Academy, he explained that one of the things he has been looking at is how to help politicians gain micro credentials and education skills, because while politics was once considered a career, this is no longer the case with a large turnover of parliamentarians in recent elections around the world.

He said a lot of people he had spoken to, who had left politics, had found it difficult to pick up employment and he believes giving politicians the opportunity to gain additional qualifications would help them attractt employment after politics and may also "help them in terms of weighing up issues and challenges, that they don't feel as vulnerable and exposed in terms of losing their seat".

Recalling his own early days in Leinster House, he said one of the best pieces of advice he received was from his then-constituency colleague Seán Doherty, who stopped him in the corridor one day and said: "Young man, can I give you a piece of advice? Politics is a marathon, not a sprint."

"When you go into politics, particularly as a young person, you're in a rush. You want to turn the world over overnight, and that doesn't happen. In politics, it's about chipping away, chipping away slowly at an issue," he said, adding that persistence pays off and that is advice he now gives to newer politicians.

On his own entry into politics in 1997 following the death of his father Liam, he said while he always had an interest in politics he hadn't envisaged himself as a TD, but he says he would have always regretted it if he didn't try it.

"The biggest challenge for me after being elected the Dáil the following June was: 'Did I want to stick with it?' And it was something that I did eventually stick with for nearly 28 years," he said.

His appointment to the Fine Gael front bench by John Bruton in 2000 was a turning point for Denis, in that he really enjoyed being involved in developing policy and strategy for the party.

"It was clear to me that if you wanted to see real change you needed to do it through policy change and legislative change," he explained.

He said he also found himself frustrated around 2002/2003 by the fact that people could not see problems the way he saw them and it almost caused him to quit politics at the time, until one day it dawned on him that he was the only scientist on the front bench while everyone else was Humanities-trained, and he realised that he was looking at problems differently.

"That, for me, was really the turning point because I was never reluctant after that to put forward an alternative perspective," he said.

Denis added that this forced him to explain more fully where he was coming from and gave him more confidence, but also a greater sense of responsibility in explaining his perspective.

"And it's something that's stood to me now outside of politics as well. It really was that I was wired completely differently in how I would try and solve problems," he said.

Denis added that he believes the most important skill in politics is the ability to listen and evaluate

"Having the experts is not necessarily the best thing in politics, but having people being able to listen, engage and take on board the advice of the experts is what's critically important," he said.

While he has closed the door on politics, Denis believes his new career can have a lasting impact.

"I enjoy it because I have a real passion for it. It's something I always felt was lacking, in terms of we have a huge amount of stuff feeding into politics on a day-to-day basis. We have a huge amount of investment going into research to have an industrial impact in relation to it, and a commercial impact, and yet we're ignoring the whole policy end of it.

"And yet, I feel it is something that can benefit Irish society, Ireland, Irish people, but every other country as well. I've always wanted to do more in this area and now I have the opportunity to do that.

"For me, it's not really work, it's doing something that I've always had a passion for and enjoy."