Models and visions of science-policy interaction: remarks from a Delphi study in Italy

In recent decades, many disciplines have dealt with the relationship between scientific research and policy-making, and many different models for science-policy interactions have been proposed. This paper aims to investigate the models of science-policy interaction implicitly or explicitly adopted by stakeholders, by means of a Delphi study performed with Italian researchers, politicians, doctors and journalists. The study was developed within the framework of the European project on Research into Policy to Enhance Physical Activity, which aimed to improve evidence-informed policy-making using the field of physical activity as the case study. Our results show the persistence of the traditional linear model and how it coexists with subsequent models in the same individual visions.