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Institute for Effective Education, University of York: What works to increase research use?
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A new systematic review
from the EPPI-Centre at the Institute of Education looks at what works
to increase research use by decision-makers. The review included 23
reviews whose relevance and methodological quality were judged
appropriate.
There was reliable evidence that the following were effective:
Interventions facilitating access to research evidence, for example,
through communications strategies and evidence repositories,
conditional on the intervention design simultaneously trying to enhance
decision-makers’ opportunity and motivation to use evidence.
Interventions building decision-makers’ skills to access and make
sense of evidence (such as critical appraisal training programmes)
conditional on the intervention design simultaneously trying to enhance
both capability and motivation to use research evidence.
There was limited evidence that interventions that foster changes to
decision-making structures and processes by formalising and embedding
one or more of the other mechanisms of change within existing structures
and processes (such as evidence-on-demand services integrating push,
user-pull, and exchange approaches) enhance evidence use.
There is reliable evidence that some intense and complex
interventions lead to an increase in evidence use. Overall though,
simpler and more defined interventions appear to have a better
likelihood of success.
Source: The Science of Using Science: Researching the Use of Research Evidence in Decision-Making (2016) EPPI-Centre