The impact of academic research, particularly on policy and the private sector, is an increasingly important component of research assessment exercises and funding distribution. However, Duncan Green argues that the way many researchers think about their impact continues to be pretty rudimentary. A lack of understanding of who key decision-makers are, a less-than-agile response to real-world events, and difficulties in […]
Category: Oxfam
The NGO-Academia interface: obstacles to collaboration, lessons from systems thinking and suggested ways forward
Collaboration between non-governmental organisations and academia ought to be easy, yet remains difficult in practice. Duncan Green outlines the present obstacles to collaboration, from competing incentives to differing degrees of urgency, explains what might be learnt from less linear, systems thinking approaches, before setting out a series of recommendations for academics, NGOs and funders. The case for partnership between international […]