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

Have we stopped caring about the climate?

The climate crisis continues to escalate, bringing increasingly severe impacts felt across the globe. However, a 2024 report analysing data from eight...

What would a better international emergency aid system look like?

Amidst the chaos of a world on fire – metaphorically and literally – it is worth looking for ways to contribute to...

Does text messaging reach and engage young people?

How do we reach and engage young people – with research, with advice, with training? We know that the answer is going...

Seeing the Future? Predictability in Research Impact

For anyone involved in research, the question of impact is central. Proving that our research has had an impact on broader society...

Knowledge brokers: what are they and what do they do?

There are many titles and phrases for anyone who works in information, communication, and knowledge brokering in the world of evidence. The...

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

Building a strategy

Strange bedfellows: bridging the worlds of academia, public health and the sex industry to improve sexual health outcomes

17/06/2011

Journal Articles

The public health response to sexually transmitted infections, particularly HIV, has been and continues to be overwhelmingly focused on risk, disease and negative outcomes of…

Research to Action

Featured

Creating a public space and dialogue on sexuality and rights: a case study from Bangladesh

17/06/2011

Journal Articles

This article describes and analyses a research based engagement by a university school of public health in Bangladesh aimed at raising public debate on sexuality…

Research to Action

Featured

Playing the role of a ‘boundary organisation’: getting smarter with networking

17/06/2011

Journal Articles

This paper discusses the practices of organisations that cross the boundary between research and politics, to promote evidence-based policies and programmes. The paper reveals the…

Research to Action

Featured

Using research to influence sexual and reproductive health practice and implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A case-study analysis

17/06/2011

Journal Articles

Research institutions and donor organizations are giving growing attention to how research evidence is communicated to influence policy. In the area of sexual and reproductive…

Research to Action

Featured

The impact of HIV and AIDS research: A case study from Swaziland

17/06/2011

Journal Articles

The paper demonstrates that, although complex, and not without methodological issues, impact assessment of research can be of real value to researchers in understanding the…

Research to Action

Featured

Investing in the future: lessons learnt from communicating the results of HSV/ HIV intervention trials in South Africa

17/06/2011

Journal Articles

Communicating the results of randomised controlled trials may present challenges for researchers who have to work with communities and policy-makers to anticipate positive outcomes, while…

Research to Action

Featured

Participatory video for monitoring and evaluation: community-based adaptation in Africa

13/06/2011

Blog Posts

As mentioned in the post KM Impact Challenge: Some examples for research communications, InsightShare and IIED worked together recently in an action research project called…

Research to Action

Building a strategy

A Brief Look at Effective Health Communication Strategies in Ghana

12/06/2011

Journal Articles

Health communication is widely considered to be a major aspect of any public health campaign. Strategies integrated into a community, based on personal contact and…

Research to Action

Featured

What shapes the influence evidence has on policy? The role of politics in research utilisation

12/06/2011

Papers & Reports

What shapes the influence evidence has on policy? The key lesson that emerges from this paper is the primacy of politics in shaping how evidence…

Research to Action

Featured

How to write about your science

06/06/2011

Blog Posts

Tips from Marina Joubert on how to switch from writing for science to writing about it — and reach a much wider audience.

As a scientist, you'll have mastered technical language and the impersonal style of scientific journals. But most people f…

Research to Action

Featured

Unpacking the share and engage mantra for researchers: the case of blogging

06/06/2011

Blog Posts

If you don’t know it yet, or if you’re not sure of its significance it’s time you caught up – web 2.0 has dramatically changed…

Andrew Clappison

Featured

Barriers to uptake of research findings on governance and public services in low-income Africa explored in new working paper

31/05/2011

Papers & Reports

Working with the grain and swimming against the tide: Barriers to uptake of research findings on governance and public services in low-income Africa by David…

Research to Action

  • Previous
  • 1
  • …
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • …
  • 84
  • 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

  • Have we stopped caring about the climate?
  • What would a better international emergency aid system look like?
  • Does text messaging reach and engage young people?
  • Seeing the Future? Predictability in Research Impact
  • Knowledge brokers: what are they and what do they do?
🌀 Have we stopped caring about the climate?

Crisis fatigue. Shrinking attention spans. Endless global emergencies.

🌍 Climate change is slipping off the radar — even as the urgency grows.

In her latest blog, Inés Arangüena comnsiders new research from the Reuters Institute and explores how we can re-ignite public connection to the climate crisis — emotionally and politically.

📖 Read the full piece via 🔗 Link in bio

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #CrisisFatigue #ScienceCommunication #ClimateAction #Sustainability #InesArangüena #ResearchToAction #ClimateAwareness #StayEngaged

🌀 Have we stopped caring about the climate?

Crisis fatigue. Shrinking attention spans. Endless global emergencies.

🌍 Climate change is slipping off the radar — even as the urgency grows.

In her latest blog, Inés Arangüena comnsiders new research from the Reuters Institute and explores how we can re-ignite public connection to the climate crisis — emotionally and politically.

📖 Read the full piece via 🔗 Link in bio

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #CrisisFatigue #ScienceCommunication #ClimateAction #Sustainability #InesArangüena #ResearchToAction #ClimateAwareness #StayEngaged

🌍 Amidst a world in crisis, it's still possible — and powerful — to be part of building something better.

Want to help rethink how humanitarian aid works? 🌱 Join the global #HumanitarianRethink consultation and be part of shaping a more inclusive, effective, and far-reaching system.

🗣️ Add your voice.
🔗 Link in bio or visit:
researchtoaction.org/2025/05/what-would-a-better-international-emergency-aid-system-look-like

#RebuildingBetter #HumanitarianAid #R2ARecommends #GlobalVoices #AidReform #MakeChange #CrisisResponse #HumanityInAction

🌍 Amidst a world in crisis, it's still possible — and powerful — to be part of building something better.

Want to help rethink how humanitarian aid works? 🌱 Join the global #HumanitarianRethink consultation and be part of shaping a more inclusive, effective, and far-reaching system.

🗣️ Add your voice.
🔗 Link in bio or visit:
researchtoaction.org/2025/05/what-would-a-better-international-emergency-aid-system-look-like

#RebuildingBetter #HumanitarianAid #R2ARecommends #GlobalVoices #AidReform #MakeChange #CrisisResponse #HumanityInAction

🌀 Can we predict research impact?
Not exactly — but we can think more clearly about what’s likely, what’s possible, and what’s out of our hands.

This week on @researchtoaction, we’re recommending a thoughtful resource:
📄 “Seeing the Future: Predictability in Research Impact”
🔗 Link in bio

A useful read for researchers, funders & knowledge brokers thinking about how research makes a difference in the real world.

#ResearchImpact #KnowledgeMobilisation #EvidenceUse #ImpactPlanning #ResearchEngagement #R2ARecommends #LinkInBio

#ResearchImpact #KnowledgeMobilisation #EvidenceUse #ImpactPlanning #ResearchEngagement #R2ARecommends

🌀 Can we predict research impact?
Not exactly — but we can think more clearly about what’s likely, what’s possible, and what’s out of our hands.

This week on @researchtoaction, we’re recommending a thoughtful resource:
📄 “Seeing the Future: Predictability in Research Impact”
🔗 Link in bio

A useful read for researchers, funders & knowledge brokers thinking about how research makes a difference in the real world.

#ResearchImpact #KnowledgeMobilisation #EvidenceUse #ImpactPlanning #ResearchEngagement #R2ARecommends #LinkInBio

#ResearchImpact #KnowledgeMobilisation #EvidenceUse #ImpactPlanning #ResearchEngagement #R2ARecommends


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 © 2025 Research to Action. All rights reserved. Log in