With the election of a Labour government in 1997 many sociologists perceived the dawning of new opportunities for the discipline to contribute to the policy process. At the same time there have been signs of a growing receptiveness on the part of government to the results of academic research and reflection. Prominent sociologists have even been credited with significant influence on the overall direction of New Labour. All of this goes hand in hand with ESRC's continuing injunctions, inherited in part from the demands of the previous government, to engage users and beneficiaries in the research process.