Research implementation

The enablers of effective knowledge exchange between science and policy

By Vivian Nguyen and Chris Cvitanovic.

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1. Vivian Nguyen (biography)
2. Chris Cvitanovic (biography)

What are the practical enabling conditions necessary for effectively implementing strategies to enhance knowledge exchange at the science-policy interface?

To address this question, we undertook a comprehensive and global review of the published literature in the field of environmental management. Specifically, following established scoping review protocols, we examined 56 empirical case studies that document enablers of effective knowledge exchange between science and policy. By doing so, we also identified and provided actionable insights that can help anyone working at the interface of science and policy to enhance their knowledge exchange efforts, ultimately leading to more impactful and desirable outcomes, and ensuring that the benefits of knowledge exchange efforts outweigh the cost of implementation.

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A framework for transdisciplinary boundary work

By Lisa Andrews, Stefania Munaretto, Heleen Mees and Peter Driessen.

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1. Lisa Andrews (biography)
2. Stefania Munaretto (biography)
3. Heleen Mees (biography)
4. Peter Driessen (biography)

What are the challenges in engaging different actors and integrating knowledge across disciplines? What does it mean to do this work ‘well’? What brings about successful engagement, boundary crossing and knowledge integration to enable impact? More specifically, how can transdisciplinary research project actors collaborate to produce outputs and foster societal impact?

The following framework identifies 12 boundary work activities to support transdisciplinary research project actors to collaborate, co-create and integrate knowledge that leads to societal impact across project phases. Here, impact is defined as the desired long-term societal, economic and/or environmental changes agreed upon by the involved transdisciplinary actors based on the problem and scientific knowledge gaps they aim to address, with impact resulting from a chain of events to which the transdisciplinary project has entirely or in part contributed.

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Three lessons for mainstreaming transdisciplinarity

By Lisa Andrews, Bárbara Willaarts, Andreas Panagopoulos, Radhika Kanade, Nelson Odume, Bodil Ankjær Nielsen and Ingrīda Brēmere.

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1. Lisa Andrews; 2. Bárbara Willaarts; 3. Andreas Panagopoulos; 4. Radhika Kanade; 5. Nelson Odume; 6. Bodil Ankjær Nielsen; 7. Ingrīda Brēmere (biographies)

Are there similar challenges, responsibilities, and methods in transdisciplinarity across countries, scales, contexts and actor types?

In exploring five transdisciplinary case studies from projects on the topics of the water-energy-food-environment nexus and climate change adaptation, we identified three main lessons learned. These were common across the cases from South Africa, India, Greece, Latvia and Denmark, despite their different contexts, types of actors and project structures. These lessons were shared in a workshop at the 2024 Sustainability, Research and Innovation (SRI) Congress in Finland.

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Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) 3.0: An updated framework to foster expertise for tackling complex problems

By Gabriele Bammer

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Gabriele Bammer (biography)

How can researchers interested in tackling complex societal and environmental problems easily find and draw on what they need from inter- and transdisciplinary approaches, systems thinking, action research, post-normal science and a range of other ways of combining disciplinary and stakeholder perspectives in order to bring about improvements? How can the necessary expertise be fostered and supported in a systematic way?

These are the questions that I have been addressing for more than 20 years in considering whether a new discipline – Integration and Implementation Sciences or i2S – could provide a way forward. i2S 3.0 is the third conceptualization of this discipline and the current version is summarised in the figure below.

At this stage in its development, i2S is focused on providing a framework and conduit for sharing concepts, methods, processes and other tools that are currently fragmented across inter- and transdisciplinarity, systems thinking, action research, post-normal science and other approaches.

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How science thought leadership enhances knowledge exchange

By Stefan Kaufman and Anthony Boxshall

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1. Stefan Kaufman (biography)
2. Anthony Boxshall (biography)

What is science thought leadership? What characterises science thought leadership and leaders? How does science thought leadership offer opportunities for researchers to participate in knowledge exchange?

Most examinations of knowledge exchange focus on the researchers and/or the decision makers, while the role of experts and intermediaries who are internal to the decision making process, but not the decision makers themselves, has largely been ignored. It is these internal experts and intermediaries that we refer to as science thought leaders.

Specifically, for us “science thought leadership” is “when people using, brokering or providing evidence are (simultaneously): influential, credible and valued in supporting decision making in their organization and its context” (Kaufman and Boxshall, 2023).

We found that science thought leadership has the following 11 characteristics, grouped into four categories:

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Bringing an evidence mindset to commercial products

By Natalia I. Kucirkova

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Natalia I. Kucirkova (biography; photo by Elisabeth Tønnessen)

Picture this: science seamlessly woven into commercial products for a better world. How can we foster more effective integration of science into commercial products? How can we help companies cultivate an evidence mindset?

An evidence mindset is a habit of mind committed to thoughtful engagement with research to guide understanding and actions. As a research professor leading a network of scientists supporting educational companies in integrating learning sciences into children’s products, I aim to help such companies balance their social mission with financial viability. This includes nurturing an evidence mindset.

When our researchers collaborate with companies, we assist them in establishing a research library, guiding them to actual studies instead of relying on vague phrases. We include research studies that support their ideas but also studies that contradict them.

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Challenges in knowledge translation: A Global South perspective

By Fajri Siregar

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Fajri Siregar (biography)

How is knowledge translation the same between the Global South and the Global North? What are the particular challenges in the Global South? How should future support be focused in the Global South and what, in particular, can funders do?

Common knowledge translation mechanisms

The impact of the political system on the basic mechanisms of evidence use are quite alike globally. Whether one works in a country of the Global South or North, one needs to identify influential actors to engage, the right channels to lobby, the most effective means of communication, and the right policy that needs changing. In this sense, researchers all over the world face the same struggles.

There is also a growing trend in both the Global South and North to eliminate boundaries between the realms of science and the public.

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Knowledge translation and multilingualism

By Chalani Ranwala

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Chalani Ranwala (biography)

How can knowledge translation be made more effective in countries where multiple languages are spoken, including many countries in the Global South, as well as countries with large immigrant or refugee populations?

Anywhere in the world, knowledge translation is facilitated through a process of communicating messages to an audience, who will ultimately use that information to inform their own opinions and actions. However, the way that information is perceived, digested, discussed, and passed on is shaped by the environment in which an audience lives. For example, factors such as education, economic status, political climate and cultural norms play a part in how we consume information. Here I focus on one factor – language – building on my work in research communication in Sri Lanka.

Language has a significant influence on the way knowledge translation takes place in bilingual and multilingual countries.

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Tips for influencing government policy with research

By John Thwaites

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John Thwaites (biography)

Considering three questions can help researchers interested in better use of evidence in government policy making:

  1. how is evidence used by politicians?
  2. why is best evidence not always followed?
  3. what can be done to improve the likelihood that evidence will inform policy?

How evidence is used by politicians

It is useful to start with an appreciation that politicians look to many forms of evidence other than academic research, including the grey literature, government reports, reports from Royal commissions, various other forms of expert evidence (including the politician’s favourite expert), the experience of citizens, anecdotal evidence, reports from interested parties produced by consultants, the media and Google searches.

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Six lessons for connecting evidence to policy and practice in the Global South

By Fréjus Thoto

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Fréjus Thoto (biography)

How can the ecosystem of evidence use in policy and practice work better in Global South countries such as Benin?

Here I provide six lessons drawn from activities undertaken by the African Center for Equitable Development (ACED), a non-profit think-and-do tank, located in Benin, West Africa. Our focus has been on the food and nutrition security sector.

Lesson 1: Access to policy-relevant evidence is still a big challenge

There is still much work to do in order to ensure that timely and policy-relevant evidence is produced and accessible to users. We have developed a national platform to consolidate and display the available statistical data, research findings, and evaluation findings. However, a platform alone is not enough, and research agenda setting, research-policy dialogues and other strategic activities are required.

Lesson 2: Involve governments at all levels in evidence-informed policymaking processes

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Challenges to science-policy-society interactions in transdisciplinary research

By Oghenekaro N. Odume, Akosua B. K. Amaka-Otchere, Blessing N. Onyima, Fati Aziz, Sandra B. Kushitor and Sokhna Thiam

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1. Oghenekaro N. Odume; 2. Akosua B. K. Amaka-Otchere; 3. Blessing N. Onyima; 4. Fati Aziz; 5. Sandra B. Kushitor; 6. Sokhna Thiam (biographies)

Why is transdisciplinary research that aims to co-produce knowledge across academic disciplines, policy contexts and societal domains often so difficult? What are the key challenges that need to be overcome?

We identified five key challenges when we analysed five projects implemented in nine African cities which were part of the Leading Integrated Research for Agenda 2030 in Africa (LIRA) program (Odume et al., 2021).

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Institutionalizing evidence-informed policy-making in Latin America and the Caribbean / Institucionalizando la toma de decisiones informadas por evidencias en Latinoamérica y el Caribe/ Institucionalizando a formulação de políticas informadas em evidências na América Latina e Caribe

By Directors and Coordinators of the Latin American and the Caribbean Evidence Hub

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Author biographies

A Spanish version and a Portuguese version of this post are available

How is the routine use of evidence in policy in Latin America and the Caribbean progressing? How is it being institutionalized?

We provide a brief history of key initiatives to institutionalize evidence-informed policy making mechanisms in the region.

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