General Resources and Agencies
A recent (2015) mapping of the research utilisation landscape in health care (in the UK and internationally) has produced a list of eight archetypes for organisations’ approach to improving research uptake. The authors emphasise that, in practice, there are often overlaps in the type of approach organisations take to get research into policy and practice.
Below are some key organisations involved in improving research uptake:
- 3Ie- International Initiative for Impact Evaluation
- Alliance for Health Systems and Policy Research (AHSPR)
- Alliance for Useful Evidence
- Better Evaluation
- EvidenceAid
- Evidence Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet), World Health Organization
- International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI)
- INASP – Research and Knowledge at the Hearth of Development
- Institute of Development Studies Impact and Learning Team
- McMaster Health Forum, WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Informed Policy
- Overseas Development Institute’s Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) Programme
- Research to Action – The Global Guide to Research Impact
- Policy Innovation Research Unit
- School for Public Health Research @ LSHTM
- UK Collaborative on Development Sciences (UKCDS)
Further useful resources:
- Health Systems Global (HSG) Thematic Working Group: Translating Evidence into Action. This thematic working group focuses on the translation of health systems evidence into action through knowledge exchange on best practices, lessons learned, and practical guidance and tools. See their Baseline Inventory of Global Initiatives for Knowledge Translation aiming to provide an overview of “who is doing what and how, under the umbrella of knowledge translation.”
- Policymakers working in low- and middle-income countries may find The Evidence-Informed Policy-Making Training Course developed by AFIDEP and FHI360 useful. The goal of this training course is to strengthen the technical capacity of mid-level policymakers in accessing, appraising, interpreting, synthesizing, and utilizing research evidence in decision-making.
- The book ‘Using Evidence: How Research Can Inform Public Services’ by Nutley, Walter and Davies (2007, The Policy Press) draws together current knowledge about how research gets used and how this can be encouraged and improved.
- The report InterAction: How can academics and the third sector work together to influence policy and practice by Carnegie UK Trust (2016) explores the different approaches of both sectors to knowledge and evidence; investigates the obstacles and challenges to collaboration; highlights examples of successful interactions; and makes a series of recommendations to those in the third sector, academia, and the research funding councils as to how more positive collaboration can be encouraged.
- Commentary: Evidence-based policymaking in health systems is a myth.
- Knowledge Translation Program at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, has developed a wide range of practice-based knowledge translation tools to aid in the dissemination and implementation of research.
- The book ‘Knowledge Translation in Health Care: Moving from Evidence to Practice, 2nd Edition’ by Straus, Tetroe, and Graham (2013, BMJ Books) defines the principles and practice of knowledge translation and outlines strategies for successful knowledge translation in practice and policy making.
- Journal article: ‘Some theoretical underpinnings of knowledge translation’ by Graham and Tetroe (2007, Acad Emerg Med).
- Integrated Knowledge Translation (iKT) as described in the paper ‘Getting Evidence into Policy and Practice: Perspective of a Health Research Funder’ by Graham and Tetroe (2009, J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry).
- Journal article: Global Forum 2015 dialogue on “From evidence to policy – thinking outside the box”: perspectives to improve evidence uptake and good practices in the African Region. By Kirigia et al. (2016, BMC Health Services Research, 16 Suppl 4:215).
- The Alliance for Useful Evidence: Top 10 Resources on the Use of Evidence
- Journal article: ‘Empirically derived guidance for social scientists to influence environmental policy’ by Marshall et al. (2017, PLOS ONE).
Please follow the links for specific resources on: