Table 3 Framework for assessing country-level efforts to link research to action *
From: Capturing lessons learned from evidence-to-policy initiatives through structured reflection
Domain | Elements | |
|---|---|---|
General climate | • Funders, researchers, universities and other research institutions, research users, and intermediary groups support or place value on efforts to link research to action | |
Production of research | • Efforts to engage in priority-setting processes, produce and use scoping reviews, systematic reviews, and single studies when needed | |
• Efforts to develop the capacity of researchers to prepare evidence briefs and other forms of research synthesis | ||
Activities used to link research evidence to action | Push efforts | • Efforts to prepare and communicate evidence briefs to research users |
• Efforts to communicate research findings, which may include identifying actionable messages, fine-tuning messages for different user groups, using evidence-informed strategies to support action based on the messages, and evaluating their impact | ||
• Efforts to enhance the capacity of researchers to develop and execute evidence-informed push efforts and evaluate their capacity | ||
Efforts to facilitate user-pull | • Efforts to provide access to research (e.g., rapid-response units and ‘one-stop shopping’ to meet users’ needs for high quality research) | |
• Efforts by researchers to develop research users’ capacity to use research | ||
User-pull efforts | • Efforts to facilitate research use, such as efforts to assess and enhance the capacity of research users to acquire, assess, adapt, and apply research | |
• Efforts to develop structures and processes to help research users to acquire, assess, adapt and apply research; to combine research with other types of information as inputs to decision-making; and to promote the use of research evidence in decision-making | ||
Exchange efforts | • Deliberative processes (such as policy dialogues) and meaningful partnerships between researchers and policymakers to jointly ask and answer relevant questions | |
• Efforts to enhance the capacity of researchers and research users to engage in mutually beneficial partnerships | ||
Evaluation | • Supporting and participating in rigorous evaluations of efforts to link research to action, outcomes, impacts, and unanticipated consequences | |
• Evaluating sustainability (institutionalizing KTPs, governance, structure, function resources, etc.), lessons learned, and opportunities for improvement | ||