From May to October 2020, the Impact Initiative convened monthly discussions online to draw on some stand-out examples of particular impact pathways and strategies that have emerged over the course of the Impact Initiative programme. The process was designed to produce reflections on opportunities and challenges of working on a portfolio of research in different ways to maximise impact.
News and Views
Posted: 2nd April
The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed debates about the politics of science into the mainstream. A new report suggests there are some key qualities that may go towards determining the success of research-policy partnerships and those seeking to influence them. The ability of diverse communities of researchers and policy actors to find common ground, sustain their interactivity and adapt to change, will have real consequences.
Posted: 16th March
Focus groups with academics and practitioners in the KwaZulu Natal province examined how the context in which national policy is implemented and monitored differs for poorer schools versus schools in urban, advantaged areas. Data generated by an ESRC-DFID funded project indicates that the national curriculum alone cannot improve learning outcomes in a highly heterogeneous, unequal system.
Posted: 25th February
The Celebrating Impact Prize is the UK's Economic and Social Research Council's annual opportunity to recognise and reward ESRC-funded researchers who’ve created, or enabled, outstanding impact from social science research.
Posted: 6th February
At a time when policymakers in different parts of the world have become increasingly interested in promoting women’s engagement with the labour market, persisting barriers remain a challenge. A workshop with scholars explored research evidence and policy engagement in South Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa.
Posted: 3rd February
The surprise announcement by UKRI that they will be removing the Pathways to Impact from their grant applications has sent the UK research community into a spin. Very few academics are going to miss writing impact pathways statements. They were seen by many as a tick box exercise and the opportunity to promote a deeper reflection on how to engage with non-academic partners and users was all too often squandered.
Posted: 27th January
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Global Education event: ‘Heralding the decade of leaving no girl behind’ (supported by the Global Partnership for Education, the Impact Initiative and RESULTS UK) met in the House of Commons to share progress and discuss what still needs to be done in order to move beyond the numbers of girls in school towards gender equality.
Posted: 21st January
The Sixth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (#HSR2020) - which is co-sponsored by Health Systems Global (HSG) - takes place in Dubai, United Arab E
Posted: 13th January
On Monday 9th December, researchers from the ESRC-DFID Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme (RLO) alongside policymakers, development practitioners and civil society, met in Delhi to present evidence and explore pathways to improving learning outcomes in different Indian contexts. In this blog, organisers Anuradha De and Meera Samson of CORD India, present the key takeaways from the event.
Posted: 3rd January
The Unequal Voices project, enabled by the ESRC-DFID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research, has produced vibrant policy engagements from the local to the global level, an