Research Communication

This paper, from a series of papers published alongside the Department for International Development (DFID) “Research Strategy 2008-2013”, presents the case for the current state of DFID-funded research on research communication. First, it documents DFID's work in research and then presents the main feedback received from a consultation that asked a series of questions about how DFID could improve the way it meets its research objectives. Finally, it expresses DFID's intentions for moving forward in research communication.

Included in the feedback from the consultation is this: "The majority of respondents stated that research is more likely to be used if it takes local circumstances into account; if it gets the interest, support and contribution of important decision-makers at an early stage; and if big efforts are made to communicate the results in a user-friendly way." An analysis of further responses was organised in themes and sub-themes, as follows:

1. Research on Communication:
• The Media - "The media plays an important role in communicating research and changing attitudes and behaviour, influencing public narratives, holding governments to account and giving voice to the [economically] poor....The media can act as a lever for change, and is an essential part of the ‘enabling environment’ for research uptake....What is equally clear is that we do not understand well enough the role of the mass media in particular in informing different policy environments; how to best engage with it; what opportunities exist for exploiting rapid diversification of the media especially in Africa; and its potential role in effective research communication." A better understanding of trends in the commercialisation of global media is recommended, as well as how to help southern journalists to engage with research and report development and how to support the media to bring about better governance.
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) - There is a need "to keep ahead of technologies that affect access to, and use of research by different users and to exploit opportunities that they present. Specific areas for research include the use of ICTs by different communities (e.g. transient communities such as pastoralists and migrants, youth etc.), and the relative merits of specific or converged technologies for reaching different kinds of research users (e.g. radio and mobile phones versus television or the internet)....There was a call for DFID to engage the private sector in positive partnerships, for example by providing seed money for the research communication community to link-up with Google and Wikipedia, developing platforms for user-generated content, highlighting innovations and knowledge gaps, promoting transparency, and sharing information in a way that is not necessarily literacy dependent. There was a call to understand better the different political and regulatory environments in which ICTs can bring benefits to the [economically] poor, and under what circumstances they can be drivers, for instance, of economic growth."
• Research on policy processes - "There were wide ranging responses from the consultation on the need for research into both policy and political processes, specifically to understand how research evidence engages with and informs the different stages of policy processes, and how this varies across different settings."
2. Supporting researchers to communicate - Suggestions included: a) improve the incentives for researchers to communicate; (b) build skills to communicate more effectively; and (c) strengthen the capacity and demand for evidence.
3. Communication of research - Comments included: "...first, the need to help make more accessible current research knowledge, especially that generated in the South; second, the need to make sense of the enormous volume of research information by further analysing and tailoring it to be useful to different audiences; and third, the need to advocate for greater harmony within the research donor community to bring about more effective global access to research information...."
4. Facilitation of research uptake/ enabling environment – "Even when the right information is available in the right form, at the right time, an additional set of factors is often need to turn the information into productive gain. These may include appropriate support services for those wanting to act on knowledge....There is now a need to scale-out and support this growing sector and develop a long-term 'knowledge infrastructure' that is linked to the broader innovation environment in which knowledge can be put to work...."
5. Knowledge Management - "Two broad threads emerged under the consultation: the need for better monitoring and evaluation of research and specifically research communication, and the need to learn lessons more systematically across DFID’s portfolio of research."

As indicated here, DFID intends to develop a communication programme as a standalone set of activities in addition to its integration of communication into research programmes. Intended outcomes, by theme, and corresponding initiatives are listed below:

1. "Research on Communications - Outcome: Improved understanding of the impacts of good research communication practice on uptake of research
• Establish a set of collaborative research programmes that explore the 'unknowns' around the role of communication in getting research into use - for example the media, horizon scanning new ICT technologies; research-policy links; uptake in similar aid environments; research communications models that best serve the interests of the [economically] poor etc. At least 50% should be southern-led.
• Better understanding about how research uptake happens under different political, social and economic settings through ongoing and new research programmes.
• Map and understanding the role of information and knowledge intermediaries and partners within innovation systems."
2. "Supporting researchers to communicate - Outcome: Quality assured system for supporting researchers to better communicate research
• Provide continued support to mainstreaming communication in bilateral research programmes, through a more diverse and dedicated range of interventions and support (e.g. mentoring support, skills building).
• Create a facility for South-South dialogue around better research communication through the development of communities of practice. Structured as a network, this initiative would focus on learning across disciplines and linking researchers to knowledge intermediaries and policy processes. Outcomes include knowledge on research into use models and build capacity among DFID funded research community.
• Set up a responsive fund for innovative initiatives on getting research into use.
• Launch Global DFID Award for Research Uptake to reward innovative approaches and incentivise effective communication.
• Work with others (such as UK [United Kingdom] Collaborative on Development Sciences on Research Assessment Exercise, NEPAD [The New Partnership for Africa's Development] etc) to improve systems so that they support researchers to communicate."
3. "Communication of research - Outcome: DFID is recognised as a good communicator of research
• Develop a programme to raise the profile and intelligent debate around the importance of research communication.
• Work with international research funders to promote good practice in research communication, and better co-ordination of funding.
• Support initiatives with multilaterals to achieve more effective research communication.
• Catalyse a debate around more effective communication of quality-assured southern research, and mechanisms for engagement with national policymakers and more broad global communication channels.
• Stimulate better informed demand for research and evidence within DFID and global policy communities.
• Ensure that DFID is recognised as leading and contributing to important debates about research, through effective communication of syntheses and summaries and bespoke clusters of research programmes around topics of policy relevance and currency."
4. "Facilitation of research up take/enabling environment - Outcome: Enabling environment improved for better research uptake
• Explore innovative ways of communicating research, both within research programmes (e.g. through participatory video) and by intermediaries.
• Continue support for services that close the gap between the practical needs of users with the practical relevance of the providers.
• Bridge the gap between users' knowledge needs for practical, contextualised information and suppliers' information delivery.
• Identify and support mechanisms for better access to global public goods research by southern research generators and users.
• Explore mechanisms to raise the profile and use of southern-generated research (for example working with national governments and regional research networks) to recognise and incorporate local research communities and their work into national strategies.
• Support global initiatives and systems that establish and maintain quality-assured science."
5. "Knowledge Management/ Lessons learned - Outcome: Knowledge management strategy designed and implemented for DFID support research programmes
• Commission an agency or consortium to develop and trial robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to show impact of research communications and uptake and mainstream adoption across funders of development research.
• Undertake a scoping study to assess impact of research communication activities within DFID’s research portfolio to date as basis for scaling up.
• Develop a comprehensive Knowledge Management strategy to identify and promote learning and innovative approaches to research emerging from DFID-funded research. The strategy should also identify mechanisms for using ongoing DFID research programmes as ‘living laboratories’ for assessment and learning.
• Develop systematic mechanisms and processes for feeding research into DFID policy, and vice versa.
• Work with others in a collective approach to lesson-learning and development of new tools to make research more effectively inform policy and practice."