Use of Research Evidence
If you’re interested in studying the use of research evidence, join KimDuMont and Anupreet Sidhu on June 12 for an informal zoom meeting to discuss learnings from existing research on research use, as well as the questions that remain. Register now » Research evidence can be a powerful resource for policymakers, agency leaders, organizational managers, […]
The role of research evidence in improving policy and practice outcomes has been a topic of public debate and focus of research for some time. To date, scholarship has focused largely on two evidence challenges: 1) the role of evidence in policy formulation, for example how to get various types of evidence into the hands […]
Researchers and reformers in education and likely other arenas would do well to recognize how they are implicitly or explicitly defining “systemic” in their equity approaches and to understand some predictable limitations when their approaches do not focus on institutional change.
Some of the most impactful contributions universities make to society stem from faculty members’ external engagement—i.e., researcher engagement with policymakers and practitioners. A faculty member’s meeting with a CDC official can lead to new public health guidelines. A faculty member’s op-ed on student debt forgiveness can catalyze executive action. A faculty member’s congressional testimony on […]
In recent years, research interest in knowledge brokerage has expanded across disciplines as scholars and practitioners alike seek to better understand the mechanisms that impact use of research evidence in policymaking processes. With funding from the William T. Grant Foundation, we endeavored upon a multi-year process to bring together scholars from health, education, psychology and […]
Funders shape what research is conducted on which questions. Funders can also support the infrastructure that is vital to engagement between policymakers and researchers. And while the grants funders make are public knowledge and have received attention in the literature, we know far less about how and why funders decide on what to support.
We recently analyzed the applications we received over the last two years for research grants on improving the use of research evidence. One of the top three reasons applications were not selected for funding was a focus on the use of data and not research evidence, as defined by the Foundation. We recognize that distinctions […]
With the increase in a variety of secondary data sources related to the use of research evidence and the growth of new methods and measures used in research on the use of research evidence, opportunities abound for those studying URE to advance the field. In response, for the August 2022 Officers’ research grants cycle, we […]
By R. Chris Sheldrick, Tom Mackie, Lauren Supplee, Gracelyn Cruden, Liz Farley-Ripple, Bill Firestone, Brittany Gay, Jonathan Purtle, Alicia Wilson-Ahlstrom, on behalf of the William T. Grant Foundation Special Interest Group on the Quality of the Use of Research Evidence. For many years, the William T. Grant Foundation has funded research on ways to improve […]
It’s one thing to know how research is used in policy and practice—to understand the conditions that enable thoughtful deliberation and sense-making of the evidence and the infrastructure that supports those conditions. It’s another thing altogether to create those conditions and the supporting infrastructure so that research routinely serves the public interest. I recently took […]
The question of how to improve the use of research (URE) in policy and practice can be approached from diverse disciplinary and methodological angles. For many who study research use, attention to the challenge of URE grows naturally from an already established line of research. Other times, first-hand experience with the obstacles that prevent greater […]
The William T. Grant Foundation and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) have launched a collaborative partnership, “Increasing the Use, Usefulness and Impact of Research about Youth.” This collaboration aims to advance theory and build empirical knowledge on ways to improve the use of research evidence by policymakers, agency leaders, organizational managers, intermediaries, and other […]
“Measuring Race and Racism in Studies of Research Use” is the fourth webinar in a series focused on bringing critical race perspectives to research that examines how to improve the use of research evidence in policy and practice. Past sessions have addressed the ways race matters for how research is used, what research is used, […]
Science has the potential to improve important outcomes for youth. But if the science generated isn’t used, we are failing to achieve our goal. In this webinar, Senior Program Officer Lauren Supplee and special guest Arthur Lupia of the National Science Foundation discuss our organizations’ shared interest in supporting studies of how to improve the […]
In partnership with the Spencer Foundation and the Forum for Youth Investment, on June 10, we hosted a 90 minute panel discussion, “Power, Possibility, and Equity in Research Practice Partnerships.” RPPs have been an important approach to research that seeks to center issues of practice and the voices of educators in the research process by […]