Research utilisation at HEARD
As HEARD develops its strategic direction for 2011 and beyond, 'research utilisation for impact' is at the centre of its focus. A foundation of HEARD's work is effective knowledge and information utilisation among researchers, within the public and private sectors, and among African leadership in all spheres. Moreover, in recent years, both in academia and in practice, interest has intensified in how to go about this utilisation and how to translate this knowledge and evidence into impact.
This year, HEARD has begun an exciting process of strengthening its utilisation plans, policies and capacity. This process is drawing on the utilisation experience that already resides within the organisation, while also being built on utilisation resources and mechanisms that span its research programme, its two programmes supporting African leadership and regional capacity building and its communications and marketing function. The organisation is therefore in a position to develop a truly integrated utilisation strategy that can bridge key elements of effective utilisation, including:
- project-level planning;
- organisational capacity building around research utilisation;
- strong regional networks;
- reciprocal links between emerging evidence in research and regional needs for evidence and levels of up-take of knowledge and information
- specialised and synergistic dissemination and communication strategies - including the development of a HEARD utilisation 'toolbox' of utilisation tools and techniques.
We look forward to sharing further developments and lessons!