On Friday the 27th of March 2015, the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University (QMUL) of London hosted a workshop entitled “How can digital mechanisms be used to open up dialogue on policy involving science and technology?”The workshop is part of a series of activities organised in response to the UK commitment (no.17) of the Open Government Partnership, an international platform for domestic reformers committed to making governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens. The workshop was sponsored by QMUL and Sciencewise. Sciencewise is a project funded by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to develop ways to carry out dialogues with members of the public and experts within the UK research and policy making systems.Workshop participants came from the civil service, academia and expert organisations on (online) social dialogues. Leading experts and practitioners presented a series of ‘big ideas’ – practical solutions which participants cross examined with a view to creating a set of tangible future recommendations. Dr Panos Panagiotopoulos, Lecturer in Information Management with the School, presented an approach on opening up dialogue through policy crowdsourcing using social media data.A detailed summary of the event can be found at openupdebate.com