Knowledge-exchange unit is working to communicate better with researchers, say Sandra Messenger and Naomi Saint
Recent years have seen a growing number of initiatives promoting knowledge exchange between the worlds of research and policy. These include Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement, funded by Research England; the Universities Policy Engagement Network; and the UK parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit, launched in 2018 to act as a point of contact for researchers.
There have also been one-off events, such as the roundtable held by UK Research and Innovation last September to explore how policy engagement could be included in the Knowledge Exchange Framework, which tracks the work of universities with external partners.
All aim to give policymakers access to the best available research evidence, thereby enabling them to make the best policy decisions.
Even so, policy and research operate in very different environments. Fundamental questions remain about how policymaking organisations and researchers are, and should be, communicating. It’s not clear, for example, how policymaking organisations can best promote opportunities for experts to contribute, how they can advise on navigating complex policymaking systems, and how this information can reach individual researchers in the most inclusive way.
The answers are complicated by the fact that researchers are spread across the country and work at vastly different organisations in a wide range of circumstances, including many on fixed-term contracts.
At parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit, we were keen to understand how to communicate our resources as inclusively as possible. So we conducted an online survey aimed at revealing the communication habits of researchers and the extensive network of knowledge brokers who help to promote engagement opportunities within their institutions. We received 166 responses, split almost equally between researchers and other staff.
The survey showed that knowledge brokers feel they are only reaching an average of 40 per cent of the researchers they are responsible for. As knowledge brokers ourselves, we empathised with this result.
One of our priorities was to gauge whether Twitter was a useful platform for communicating with researchers. We have worked hard to engage with the research community over Twitter, using it to promote parliamentary engagement opportunities and information.
Twitter outperformed LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram as a social media platform. But it only came sixth among preferred modes of digital communication. A huge majority of respondents—94 per cent—said they preferred to receive information via email.
Making changes
These results have prompted changes to our digital communication strategy. While we are still using Twitter to promote opportunities and build personal relationships with our network of knowledge brokers, we have shifted our priorities towards email.
We now use an email platform where knowledge brokers and researchers can subscribe to receive a weekly round-up of opportunities for engaging with parliament. These include calls for evidence from parliamentary select committees, academic fellowship opportunities, requests for expertise and more.
Knowledge brokers and researchers each have their own tailored version of the round-up. The round-up for brokers is designed to be forwarded to the audiences they are tasked with reaching. The option for researchers was set up in direct response to growing interest from individuals, and to reach those who don’t have a knowledge broker to share information with them. This approach enables us to meet the research community where they want to find information. It also provides much more fine-grained data on how people use the opportunities we send, allowing us to continue improving our effectiveness and set meaningful performance indicators to help us reach the widest audience possible.
As well as weekly emails, we are trialling Konfer, an online tool for connecting academia and business, which hosts more than 150,000 university researchers, to match researchers with opportunities to engage with parliament. Engaging directly with our audience has enabled us to improve our digital communication strategy.
The lessons about attitudes towards social media as an information source and preferences for email are likely to apply more widely to external bodies seeking to engage with academia. They may also be useful for staff in professional service units tasked with finding and sharing opportunities for impact to serve their academic communities.
Sandra Messenger is the parliamentary academic fellow in digital knowledge exchange. Naomi Saint is a knowledge exchange manager in the UK parliament
This article also appeared in Research Fortnight