In Scotland, access to the "policy community" is relatively easy and relations are very relaxed, but this may be interpreted as a different means of managing and co-opting researchers. However, the relationships of the different actors, and the kinds of knowledge they draw on, are in a process of change. Since parliamentary devolution there has been (at least at the level of discourse) a strong move to shift away from the traditionally highly centralised forms of policy-making in education towards a more negotiated, decentralised and network form of governance, with more attention to processes of consultation and accountability. This article considers the new challenges and opportunities presented to international early career researchers when interviewing education policy elites in Scotland today. (Contains 3 notes.)