I am part of an academe-based institute of social research and development. To interface between research and policymaking, we are producing a series of "informing policy and practice" briefs that serve as information dissemination material for policy and best practice recommendations from research conducted by our faculty- and full-time researchers. Based on this very local experience, one barrier I can identify (in the context of higher education research) is there is less incentive for scientists and knowledge holders to go to the extent of sharing their findings to inform or influence policy, or for extension in general. Scientists and knowledge-holders in universities are incentivized to publish in research journals, register utility models and patents, create start-ups, and earn from technologies developed, but there are almost no incentives for scientists/knowledge-holders who are able to influence or inform policy-making. I am not very sure but even global university ranking system metrics under university research impact do not include such.
Dr. Cheryll Launio