The purpose of the panel is to help define a new framework and set of activity that links the academic and policymaking communities. Panelists will identify incentives that support government engagements between public administration schools as well as challenges that have hindered progress in developing sustainable relationships. The panelists will be national leaders in the policymaking field and will describe ambitious new projects with the White House, National Science Foundation and local officials that are demonstrating ways that schools of public administration are overcoming cynicism and positively influencing policy throughout the country. This panel will also offer NASPAA conference attendees the opportunity to participate in, and contribute to, this growing movement and set of activity. The session will: • Provide in advance a catalogue of some of the most ambitious and successful attempts to place schools of public service at the center of policymaking discussions and decisions; • Identify the opportunities and challenges, incentives and disincentives, that exist within the research-academic-policy nexus; • Examine ways—big and small—that policy engagements lead to significant benefit to home institutions; • Engage audience participants in a co-creation exercise to articulate an agreed upon framework for such efforts; • Identify ways that schools can work together and participate in existing and burgeoning networks.