Research to Action

The Global Guide to Research Impact

Navigation

  • Home

  • How To ▾

    This list of how to’s provides an essential guide for a number of key communication and engagement activities that will help make your research travel.

    • Building Capacity
    • Policy Briefs
    • Research Impact
    • Theory of Change
    • Uptake Strategy
  • Topics ▾

    • AEN Evidence 23
    • Eye on 2022
    • Impact Practitioners
    • Knowing your audience ▸
      • Building a strategy
      • Engaging policy audiences ▸
        • EBPDN
        • Targeting policy actors
        • Targeting practitioners
      • Stakeholder mapping
      • Strategic communication ▸
        • Building a brand
        • Engaging the public
      • Working with the media
    • Making your research accessible ▸
      • Framing challenges
      • Knowledge translation
      • Learning in context
      • Open access
      • Presenting your research
      • Using digital tools ▸
        • Using multi media
        • Using online tools/ICTs
        • Using social media
      • Using intermediaries
    • Monitoring and evaluation ▸
      • Applying M&E methods
      • Evidence into policy
      • Measuring success
    • Uncategorized
  • Dialogue Spaces ▾

    • Youth Inclusion and Engagement Space
    • AEN Evidence
    • GDN: Doing Research
    • Manchester Policy Week 2015
    • TTI Exchange 2015
    • Strengthening Institutions to Improve Public Expenditure Accountability (GDN PEM Project)
    • DFID/AusAid Research Communication and Uptake Workshop
    • 3ie Policy Influence and Monitoring (PIM) project
    • Policy Engagement and Communications (PEC) Programme
  • Reading Lists

  • Impact Practitioners

    • Impact Practitioners overview
    • Capacity Building
    • Communication and Engagement
    • Frameworks
    • Indicators
    • Learning
    • Monitoring and Evaluation
    • Policy Impact
    • Strategy
    • Theoretical
    • Utilisation

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Vimeo

Looking back, peering forward: our 2025 journey

As 2025 draws to a close, we’d like to take a moment to pause and look back on the past year at...

Why development research needs a new publishing paradigm

The promise of open access once offered a path toward equity in development research. However, as highlighted in a recent INASP policy...

Kathryn Oliver on rethinking evidence use

Back in October, Professor Kathryn Oliver delivered an insightful lecture on one of the big questions in our field. Individuals, organisations, and...

Job Opportunity: Director at the Africa Evidence Network (AEN)

More than a decade ago, a group of people passionate about generating and using evidence in Africa, for Africa, got together over...

Evidence is everybody’s story

In a world drowning in data, the promise of ‘evidence-based practice’ often feels distant. For many, evidence remains something that is done...

  • Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Next

Making your research accessible

LinkedIn “Research ‘Impact’ Helpdesk” launched!

27/02/2013

Blog Posts

This blog introduces an new helpdesk (hosted on LinkedIn) for researchers and intermediaries to share and receive advice on achieving research ‘impact’, with an explicit focus on research communication and engagement.

Andrew Clappison

Featured

Do we really have the processes in place to detect research ‘impact’ at all?

25/02/2013

Blog Posts

In this post, James Harvey explores some difficult and unanswered questions on research ‘impact’, such as “How deep is our understanding of influence itself?” and “Do we really have the processes in place to detect influence at all?”

James Harvey

Evidence into policy

Indonesia is growing fast, as is the demand for social welfare, but is evidence keeping pace?

19/02/2013

Blog Posts

Aranaldo Pellini looks at how evidence is informing policy in Indonesia, arguing that a big push to strengthen the use of research and data analysis in the design of public policies is needed to sustain growth.

Arnaldo Pellini

Making your research accessible

Development linked research data

18/02/2013

Blog Posts

In this post, Pete Cranston looks at how data is used by the Hunger Safety Net Programme in Kenya, exploring how its innovative and technological application has the potential to provide significant benefits for consumers of development research.

Pete Cranston

News

Request for Proposals: Consultancy to evaluate WHO programmes on research uptake

15/02/2013

News

The Assistant Director-General (ADG) of Health Systems and Innovation (HIS) is commissioning an independent review to evaluate the effectiveness of research uptake strategies used by three departments.

Featured

Why Case Studies are a bridge to influence: A super-quick guide

11/02/2013

Blog Posts

This post looks at the power of case studies as a tool for communicating with different stakeholders, and is a timely overview given the Increasing number of practitioners and researchers being asked to develop case studies as part of project evaluation.

James Harvey

Featured

Is understanding influence the solution to the impact puzzle?

28/01/2013

Blog Posts

In this article, James Harvey examines the relationship between influence and impact and how the questions that arise have implications for current thinking on monitoring and evaluation.

James Harvey

Featured

How to write a policy brief

26/01/2013

Guides & Tutorials

IDRC have put together this useful guide entitled “How to write a policy brief”. It covers pretty much everything you need to think about when developing a new brief, from framing the problem and defining the structure, to developing actionable recommendations.

Research to Action

Featured

Opening up research data

25/01/2013

Blog Posts

Open data on the web makes it possible to take information on research from many sources, and to generate ‘mash-ups’ that make it available in different places, on different platforms, and in ways that support action and impact.

Pete Cranston

Evidence into policy

Getting started on ‘evidence-informed’ policy

17/01/2013

Blog Posts

The word on the street is that ‘evidence informed’ policy is going to be big in 2013. R2A spoke to Antonio Capillo, part of the evidence informed policy making team at INASP, and asked him to recommend some blogs on the subject.

Research to Action

Featured

Open Access: What’s that about?

15/01/2013

Blog Posts

For those of you who are new to Open Access or would like understand it further Research to Action has put together a list of useful places on the web where you can find out more.

Research to Action

Featured

Using film to communicate research: Useful guides and blogs

10/01/2013

Guides & Tutorials

There has been a lot of talk and discussion around the use of film and video throughout the last year and it is becoming an…

Research to Action

  • Previous
  • 1
  • …
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • …
  • 86
  • Next

Contribute Write a blog post, post a job or event, recommend a resource

Partner with Us Are you an institution looking to increase your impact?

Most Recent Posts

  • Looking back, peering forward: our 2025 journey
  • Why development research needs a new publishing paradigm
  • Kathryn Oliver on rethinking evidence use
  • Job Opportunity: Director at the Africa Evidence Network (AEN)
  • Evidence is everybody’s story

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re pausing to reflect at Research to Action (R2A) ✨

This year, 27,000+ readers from 188 countries joined us in exploring how research can better inform action — reading, sharing, and asking thoughtful questions along the way 🌍📚

Despite a challenging year for international development, our community leaned into conversations about:
📊 Impact and learning
🔄 Knowledge brokering & evidence use
🤖 AI and the future of research

What inspired us most was how you engaged — with curiosity, care, and a commitment to making evidence matter.

✨ Looking ahead, we remain focused on creating space for reflection, learning, and meaningful exchange — together.

Thank you for being part of the journey. Here’s to another year of curiosity and impact 💛

🔗 Link in bio to read our full reflection

#ResearchToAction #EvidenceInPractice #ResearchImpact #KnowledgeSharing #EndOfYearReflection #GlobalCommunity

In our latest blog Inés Arangüena breaks down the Researcher Impact Framework (RIF) — a super practical way to show the real-world impact behind research, not just the publication count.

✨ Why it’s worth a read:
💡 Clearly explain the difference your work makes
📚 Connect outcomes to real evidence + activity
🤝 Highlight impact through collaboration, knowledge sharing & community
📊 Use metrics that actually matter (not just journal impact factors!)

If you’re a researcher, communicator, or anyone trying to share the story behind your work… this framework is a game-changer.

🔗 Link in bio to read the full blog!

#ResearchImpact #KnowledgeTranslation #DataDrivenStorytelling #AcademicCommunications #ImpactNarratives Trinity College Dublin

In our latest blog Inés Arangüena breaks down the Researcher Impact Framework (RIF) — a super practical way to show the real-world impact behind research, not just the publication count.

✨ Why it’s worth a read:
💡 Clearly explain the difference your work makes
📚 Connect outcomes to real evidence + activity
🤝 Highlight impact through collaboration, knowledge sharing & community
📊 Use metrics that actually matter (not just journal impact factors!)

If you’re a researcher, communicator, or anyone trying to share the story behind your work… this framework is a game-changer.

🔗 Link in bio to read the full blog!

#ResearchImpact #KnowledgeTranslation #DataDrivenStorytelling #AcademicCommunications #ImpactNarratives Trinity College Dublin

Revisiting a 2022 article by Tebby Leepile this International Week of Science and Peace. It dives into the challenge of scaling implementation science: too big becomes unsustainable, too small makes little impact. 🌍🔬

How do we find the balance that leads to real change?

Full article in linktree just click #R2AArchive 🔗

#ScienceForPeace #InternationalWeekOfScienceAndPeace #ImplementationScience #SustainableDevelopment #ScaleUpImpact  #FromDataToImpact  #InnovationForGood

Revisiting a 2022 article by Tebby Leepile this International Week of Science and Peace. It dives into the challenge of scaling implementation science: too big becomes unsustainable, too small makes little impact. 🌍🔬

How do we find the balance that leads to real change?

Full article in linktree just click #R2AArchive 🔗

#ScienceForPeace #InternationalWeekOfScienceAndPeace #ImplementationScience #SustainableDevelopment #ScaleUpImpact #FromDataToImpact #InnovationForGood


About Us

Research To Action (R2A) is a learning platform for anyone interested in maximising the impact of research and capturing evidence of impact.

The site publishes practical resources on a range of topics including research uptake, communications, policy influence and monitoring and evaluation. It captures the experiences of practitioners and researchers working on these topics and facilitates conversations between this global community through a range of social media platforms.

R2A is produced by a small editorial team, led by CommsConsult. We welcome suggestions for and contributions to the site.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Cookies
  • Contribute

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Our contributors

  • Paula Fray
  • Shubha Jayaram
  • Sue Martin
  • Maria Balarin
  • James Harvey
  • Emily Hayter
  • Susan Koshy
  • Ronald Munatsi
  • Ajoy Datta

Browse all authors

Friends and partners

  • AuthorAid
  • Global Development Network (GDN)
  • INASP
  • Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
  • International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)
  • ODI RAPID
  • On Think Tanks
  • Politics & Ideas
  • Research for Development (R4D)
  • Research Impact

Copyright © 2026 Research to Action. All rights reserved. Log in