The Influencing the Corridors of Power (ICOP) project is hosted by SOAS University of London. The Project aims to promote the impact of ongoing university-based research. The project is led by Prof Alison Scott-Baumann and former students and staff of SOAS. We are proud of SOAS’s record of political engagement and student activism and wish to improve the impact of university staff and students in Government. By bringing researchers and Westminster closer together, we address the democratic deficit which we believe is a result of encroaching government control on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly on SOAS and other campuses. The project is born out of the five-year AHRC/ESRC funded project, “Representing Islam on Campus”, and the follow-up project, “Voices of Dissent”. We intend that this project will serve as a model for the higher education sector and democracy more generally.