Research Communication for Impact

Project Overview

This project focused on the effective communication of research outcomes to lay audiences, specifically focussing on policy makers. The aim was to create resources for academics, research managers and other university colleagues that will support them to communicate research out to non-academic audiences. We believe that the effective communication of research will increase dialogue with key stakeholders, such as policy makers, funders and industry. It will also help to demystify research activity to local communities and lay audiences. The project builds on work already carried out by the University of Nairobi and the East African Research and Innovation Management Association on their policy brief platform.

Team Members

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The uptake of evidence based research into the policy making process is complex. It requires innovative knowledge translation initiatives between researchers, policy makers and other influential stakeholders such as NGOs, industry and the media. Academics who wish to communicate their research to inform policymaking and achieve impact can face significant challenges. A number of key structural and professional challenges of information generation, sharing and usage persist between researchers and policymakers which can sometimes prevent effective communication and uptake of research evidence for policy making.

This toolkit aims to outline and tackle some of the key challenges by exploring the following four broad areas:

1. Why should we engage with policy makers?

2. Who should we engage with?

3. How do we communicate?

4. When do we communicate?

The toolkit can be accessed here: Communication Research For Impact and Change: A Guide to Engaging with Policy Makers