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
Learning
Whose knowledge counts in development research?
27/06/2025
Blog post
Who truly shapes the global academic landscape? In this academic article, Sarah Cummings and Paul Hoebink pull back the curtain on a significant imbalance in…
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) –…
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…
Join a community interested in digital tools for MERL
05/03/2025
Blog post
There are a confusing number of acronyms used by the community that is interested in keeping tabs on progress being made (in research, development, activism),…
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…
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…
What Are We Missing? Podcast
21/11/2024
Key Resources
In their podcast series which started in February 2024, Development Initiatives explores the question: ‘What are we missing?” within the context of several global crises…
Reviewing ethical reporting practice in violence research
12/08/2024
Blog post
In this 9-page article from BMJ Global Health, the authors talk about the importance of making sure we follow the right ethical rules when collecting…
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…
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…
How to co-produce a research project
30/05/2024
Blog Posts
This 11-page guidance document by Tina Coldham and published by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) sets out the key principles and features of…
Making knowledge systems more equitable: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
09/05/2024
Blog Posts
This brief paper by the international development charity INASP delves into the injustices exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic within our knowledge systems. As we continue…
Four lessons for improving Theory of Change use in research uptake M&E
28/03/2024
Blog Posts
This 11-page paper brief published by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) presents lessons learned from using theories of change (ToCs) for research uptake evaluation….
Improving ethics in data collection and reporting
22/02/2024
Blog Posts
In this 9-page article from BMJ Global Health, the authors talk about the importance of making sure we follow the right ethical rules when collecting…
How to approach and learn from research into use activities
10/08/2023
Blog Posts
This 6-page learning guide commissioned by the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) focuses on research into use activities and what you…
Barriers to and facilitators of research use in policymaking
22/06/2023
Blog Posts
This 12-page systematic review by Kathryn Oliver, Simon Innvar, Theo Lorenc, Jenny Woodman and James Thomas studies the factors that influence the use of evidence…
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…
What do researchers think about societal impact?
05/01/2023
Blog Posts
This 20-page academic paper by Benedikt Fecher and Marcel Hebing studies what researchers think about achieving societal impact. To find out how researchers approach societal…
Paula Fray
Shubha Jayaram
Sue Martin
Maria Balarin
James Harvey
Emily Hayter
Susan Koshy
Ronald Munatsi
Ajoy Datta
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