Regular readers of this website do not need to be told that evidence is important. It is essential in shaping both our understanding of the…
What international crisis coverage reveals about the aid system
23/07/2025
Blog post
Communication and Engagement
Why research users are central to research impact
04/07/2025
Blog post
If you want your research to make a difference, you need to think about who will use it. The Research Impact Academy has recently published…
How can research support volunteering?
20/06/2025
Blog post
As the funding landscape tightens, organisations in the Third Sector – that is organizations that are neither government (public sector) nor business (private sector) –…
Does text messaging reach and engage young people?
23/04/2025
Blog post
How do we reach and engage young people – with research, with advice, with training? We know that the answer is going to lie partly…
Knowledge brokers: what are they and what do they do?
26/03/2025
Blog post
There are many titles and phrases for anyone who works in information, communication, and knowledge brokering in the world of evidence. The roles are as…
The global information ecosystem is under threat
21/03/2025
Blog post
Research to Action (R2A) was set up back in 2010 because there was a lack of ‘free to use’ information and advice for the global…
AI at work in one small Nigerian newsroom
19/03/2025
Blog post
The independent, climate-focused investigative newsroom The Colonist Report scored an investigative success using AI recently, according to the Reuters Institute website. The newsroom used commonly-used…
Communicating the climate emergency
26/02/2025
Blog post
It is not unreasonable to claim that the world is not listening to those talking about the climate emergency. If they are listening, they are…
Effective participation is the goal: but how to get it?
10/02/2025
Blog post
Participation in development projects is a central tenet of participatory development and research. It is based on the idea that those most affected by structural…
Challenging Western perspectives in global health
03/02/2025
Blog post
This paper by Fayemi et al. asks us to look at the topic of global health ethics in a different way. It argues that conventional…
How can communities bounce back from climate disasters? Policymakers must consider how companies’ reactions matter
13/01/2025
Blog post
Climate change puts communities around the world at increasing risk of catastrophic climate disasters. Last year, the floods caused by Storm Daniel wiped out entire…
Hey International Development, check out TikTok
09/12/2024
Blog post
TikTok is a constantly evolving social media platform. It’s targeted towards Generation Z with 16–24-year-olds making up over 60% of the viewers – and 56%…
Supporting Independent Media: Media Viability Accelerator
04/12/2024
Blog post
With the business model for media becomning increasingly fragile, how can small, independent media survive? In all parts of the world, but especially the Global…
Youth-focused initiatives: Youth Employment Evidence and Insights Hub
11/10/2024
Blog post
The Youth Employment Evidence and Insights Hub (YEEIH) is a new initiative led by the Pan-African Collective for Evidence (PACE) with the support of the…
Four strategies to increase policy influence
03/10/2024
Blog post
This 10-page article offers some insights from policy studies and case studies of Oxfam campaigns to promote the uptake of research evidence in policy. Oxfam…
Five ways to improve policy engagement
02/09/2024
Blog post
This 28-page report by the Institute for Government (IfG) sets out how universities, research councils and funding councils can improve the way they support policy…
Youth-focused initiatives: SheDecides.
30/08/2024
Blog post
SheDecides is a diverse global political movement fighting for a world where every woman, girl, and young person has autonomy over their body, life and…
Nothing about us without us
23/08/2024
Blog post
“If you’re going to come up with solutions to the problems of Africa don’t come up with policies and programmes that don’t include the voices…
Ten lessons for influencing policy
25/07/2024
Blog Posts
This 16-slide presentation by Sir Peter Gluckman, the chair for the International Network of Government Science Advice (INGSA) is all about successfully using evidence to…
Improving the effectiveness of educational knowledge brokering
11/07/2024
Blog post
In this 46-page article by Lucy Rycroft-Smith, the focus is on connecting research to practical use in education, and finding ways to bridge the gap…
Six mechanisms to strengthen citizen engagement in public service governance
27/06/2024
Blog Posts
This six-page systematic review brief by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) seeks to determine whether engaging citizens in the planning, management and oversight…
Seven lessons about impact case studies from REF 2021
06/06/2024
Blog Posts
This blog post written by Dr Philly Iglehart details seven key takeaways about impact case studies, drawing on Plymouth Marjon University’s experience of preparing impact…
Evaluation of current research-policy engagement activities and why they are failing
20/07/2023
Blog Posts
This 23-page academic paper by a team of UK and U.S. scientists looks at research-policy engagement activities, studies their impact and draws lessons for those…
Toolkits for planning and measuring engaged research
15/06/2023
Blog Posts
This interactive website with toolkits and guides published by Campus Engage, a platform within the Irish Universities Association, presents advice, tips and case studies on…
SPIRIT Action Framework: Achieving better research use in four steps
08/06/2023
Blog Posts
This 8-page academic paper written by a group of scientists in collaboration with seven Australian and international organisations presents the SPIRIT Action Framework (Supporting Policy…
Designing research uptake strategy: four areas to consider
01/06/2023
Blog Posts
This 12-page guidance note, originally produced for research projects funded through Elrha, provides information on developing a research uptake strategy. The resource is based on…
Toolkit for planning, capturing, communicating and monitoring research impact
30/03/2023
Blog Posts
This interactive website by University College Dublin (UCD) presents an online toolkit for research impact. It features a number of resources and tools for planning,…
Beginner’s guide to creating, capturing and measuring research impact
23/02/2023
Blog Posts
This 17-page Research Impact e-book by Taylor and Francis Author Services is a great starter guide for understanding what research impact is, how it is…
Toolkit for communications monitoring, evaluation and learning
09/02/2023
Blog Posts
This 24-page toolkit developed by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) is about communications monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL). It presents a framework to think about…
Putting research users into the centre of uptake strategy: lessons from the EEG programme
02/02/2023
Blog Posts
This 23-page report produced by the Applied Research Programme on Energy and Economic Growth (EEG) presents the EEG’s research uptake strategy. To inform its strategies…
Guide to networking and improving your policy impact
19/01/2023
Blog Posts
This 136-page handbook by Argentinian nonprofit organisation CIPPEC is about networking for policy influence. It provides readers with lots of practical tips and guidelines on…
How to design research uptake strategy: lessons from High Volume Transport case study
08/12/2022
Blog Posts
This 11-page report by the development consultancy IMC presents the notes taken from the research uptake strategy for the High Volume Transport Applied Research Programme…
Paula Fray
Shubha Jayaram
Sue Martin
Maria Balarin
James Harvey
Emily Hayter
Susan Koshy
Ronald Munatsi
Ajoy Datta
Social Media