Studies have shown that while many factors affect decision-makers’ use of research, evidence of what particular engagement actions actually work is very limited. Indeed, increasing access to research appears to be the only intervention to reliably increase use. The Conversation is a free-to-access research communication platform designed to be accessible to general audiences. Pauline Zardo reports on The Conversation Annual […]
Category: research use
Five lessons for researchers who want to collaborate with governments and development organisations but avoid the common pitfalls
The appeal of collaborating with a government agency, or an organisation funded by one, seems obvious. It provides researchers with much needed resources and information, while also offering practitioners and policymakers a way of generating the evidence needed to design better programmes. In practice, however, it’s not always easy to make collaborative research work well. Susan Dodsworth and Nic Cheeseman […]
Never mind the policymakers, a more nuanced understanding of the diverse roles in change processes is required
Funding bids, blogs, academic papers, and policy briefs are awash with references to the “policymaker” as the primary audience for research and evidence. But this term means very little when you consider the diversity of policy actors, practitioners, donors, and activists. James Georgalakis argues researchers need to acquire a more nuanced understanding of their audiences’ diverse roles in change processes. […]
Two New Exciting Research Data Infrastructure Projects: Or From Soup to Nuts and Back (Maybe)
We hear a constant stream of news about how crunching massive data collections will change everything from soup to nuts. Here on The Signal, it’s fair to say that scientific research data is close to the heart of our hopes, dreams and fears when it comes to big data: we’ve written over two-dozen posts touching on […]